free! may 2010 // that eazy-duz-it magazine from citr 101.9 fm // supporting vancouver's independent music community for over 25 years
apollo ghosts
caribou / babe rainbow / ryan walter wagner / the new pornographers / sxsw / bison b.c. / how to be a dj pt. 2
Editor Jordie Yow
editor's note
Art Director Lindsey Hampton
Dear Discorder: With spring just around the corner, this is time to make plans for summer. This is the time of year when all the planning for local festivals and concerts are happening and I have a challenge for them. Over the last few years members of Discorder and CiTR have been playing a number of friendly softball games against groups like Megaphone, Adbusters and CBC Radio 3. This year we would like to extend the challenge to the entire Vancouver music community. This is a personal challenge, but it is on behalf of Discorder and CiTR. We challenge all members of the Vancouver music community to defeat us in a game of softball. For sake of simplicity we'll steal the league rules from the Vancouver Recreational Softball League. Email me at editor.discorder@gmail.com to accept the challenge and arrange a game over the course of the summer. It's just for fun, but I have to warn you that we'll probably crush you mercilessly and then rub it in your faces... in print.
Production Manager Debby Reis Copy Editors Alison Atkinson, Liz Brant, Debby Reis, Miné Salkin Ad Manager David Stansfield Under Review Editor Miné Salkin RLA Editor Steve Louie Web Editor Reilly Wood intern Susanne Dewein Calendar Listings Debby Reis Accounts manager Corey Ratch Program Guide Bryce Dunn, Debby Reis
Now, getting back to this issue: We've got some of Vancouver's heaviest hitters talking to us: Carl Newman from the New Pornographers dropped Dan Fumano a line to chat about his new album on page 14, James Farwell from Bison B.C., who's music is heavy in a different sense of the word, discusses the maturation of their music with Scott Lyon on page 18, Polaris award winner Dan Snaith of Caribou talked with our Jackie Wong about his newest endeavour on page 12, Sancho McCann met with some of Vancouver's best promoters to work out how you can get your start as a DJ on page 38 and you can find one of Vancouver's best live bands, the Apollo Ghosts, gracing our cover this month and on page 8. Have a good month and I hope to be facing you on the diamond soon. Cheers, Jordie Yow
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Official tweeters Maegan Thomas, Debby Reis CiTR Station Manager Brenda Grunau Publisher Student Radio Society of UBC Cover Ryan Walter Wagner
MaY Writers Sarah Berman, Kathryn Boothroyd, Nathaniel Bryce, Slavko Bucifal, Sarah Charrouf, Dan Fumano, Brenda Grunau, Andy Hudson, Scott Lyon, Doug MacKenzie, Miranda Martini, Sancho McCann, Dorothy Neufeld, Miné Salkin, Craig Turney, Jackie Wong, Angela Yen, Jordie Yow Photographers & Illustrators Merida Anderson, Tyler Crich, Bev Davies, Robert Fougere, Marlis Funk, Mike Irvine, Tamara Lee, Duncan McHugh, TJ Reynolds, Ehren Salazar, Shaun Stander, Ryan Walter Wagner Proofreaders Susanne Dewein, Steve Devereux, Simon Foreman, Steve Louie, Debby Reis, Alec J. Ross
©Discorder 2010 by the Student Radio Society of the University of British Columbia. All rights reserved. Circulation 8,000. Discorder is published 11 times a year by CiTR, which can be heard at 101.9 FM, online at www.citr.ca, as well as through all major cable systems in the Lower Mainland, except Shaw in White Rock. Call the CiTR DJ line at (604) 822-2487, CiTR's office at (604) 822-3017, email CiTR at CitrMgr@ ams.ubc.ca, or pick up a pen and write #233-6138 SUB Blvd., Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z1, Canada.
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table of contents // May 2010 // discorder.ca
in loving memory of
-Devon Clifford1979-2010
PHOTO BY RYAN WALTER WAGNER
18 / BISON B.C.
In this article you will read about: the Divine Prophet, a wrestler; locations; tacos; Chris-a-Riffic, a musician; Loki, a cat; identity and performance.
The hairy metal band has evolved beyond songs about aliens from outer space and wizards and has begun to sing about reality and the DTES. James Farwell took some time off on the road to discuss things with us.
// features
08 / APOLLO GHOSTS 10 / BABE RAINBOW Cam Reed has embarked on a musical journey as Babe Rainbow. He spoke to us about it and his pants. We wish him all the best in his quest.
12 / CARIBOU A profile of the enigmatic award-winning musician to parallel the release of his new album, Swim.
14 / THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS Carl Newman talks to us about his band's new album Together. He also talks about how cool we are. No, it's true he actually does. We're as shocked as you. We didn't pay him to do it or anything.
34 / SXSW A recounting of the highlights of one of North America's biggest and most important music festivals from the eyes of our publisher.
38 / How to be a dj pt. 2 Wanna be a DJ? Get Free drinks? Party all night? Be known for laying down the phattest beats and the freshest mixes? Well take a look at the second and final article in our two part series and begin your journey into the world of record spinning.
06 / Textually Active
16 / Film Stripped
Appetite for Self Destruction by Steve Knopper
Bloodied But Unbowed
07 / Venews
39 / Charts
25 / Art project Art by Ryan Walter Wagner of Tight Solid, the WPP and Nurse
20 / Calendar Art by Mike Irvine
22 / Program guide
28 / Under Review
// reVIEWS
// REGULARS
The ANZA / Malice Liveit
Ryan Bourne / Ron Contour & Factor / Delhi 2 Dublin / Goldfrapp / Gorillaz / Inhabitants / The Jessica Stewart Few / Liars / Plants & Animals / Young Rival
31 / Real Live Action Apollo Ghosts / Fake Jazz Festival / International Record Store Day / Pierced Arrows / Scatterheart / You Say Party! We Say Die!
textually active // APPETITE FOR SELF-DESTRUCTION: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age Soft Skull Press 2010 (softcover) By Steve Knopper
Review by Andy Hudson
T
his is a journalist's indictment of the record industry in hardboiled style: the sorry, twisted tale of how big music took a big fall at the end of the '84-'99 CD boom. Author Steve Knopper, who now freelances for the likes of Spin, Wired and Rolling Stone, fittingly got his start writing obituaries. This colourful obit takes him deep into the dark hearts of CBS Records, Sony, Warner and Universal Music, labels where the top brass were too moneyed, too lawyered or too afraid to kick their core business of selling shiny plastic discs. In the course of seven, character-driven chapters, Knopper lists off eight bullets that sent the industry spinning: the CD "longbox," pay-for-play radio, wiping out digital audio tapes and killing the single, the RIAA lawsuits, the Sony BMG Rootkit and whiffing on their own plan to sell music digitally before the advent of iTunes. It's no wonder that HBO has optioned the rights to make this book into a feature-length film. Knopper himself suggested something along the lines of Boogie Nights, a good match given that both star the Internet in a killing role and feature a cast of characters who appear larger than life. Walter Yetnikoff, the CBS Records man responsible for the success of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," enters the book as a "coke-addled, fast-living, bomb-throwing, disrespectful provocateur." Tom Freston, "one of the brain trust of frustrated and slumming music-business types," who created MTV, gets a typical summing up as "an advertising executive who'd worked on the G.I. Joe account before fleeing the toy business to hike through the Sahara with a girlfriend, then landed in Asia to run a fabric-export company." Not only HBO producers, but also music and business critics have praised this book, usually with the one holdout that it sometimes reads like a cartoon. I think it's fair to say Knopper sides a bit with his supporting cast, underlings like the nuclear physicist and audiophile James T. Russell, a guy who unsuccessfully tried to shop around a prototype CD player that he single-handedly built in 1965 after learning that vinyl records will scratch and hiss even if you play them with a cactus needle. Knopper does set up a good guy/bad guy dynamic
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where young, penniless programmers—the Fraunhofer team who first coded MP3 files and or even Napster's Shawn Fanning—get nowhere when they try warning or working with big music labels to prevent their impending online doom. On the other hand, Knopper seems to share some sympathy with the label execs who feel that Steve Jobs cut them a hard deal when he gave them just 67 cents per track sold on iTunes. If it's a bit cartoony, the pages of Appetite for Self-Destruction flip faster than the Nana Mouskouri section in the Sally Anne. And it's not every label exec who comes off looking like Sony's $10-million-in-yearly-expenses Tommy Mottola. One of Knopper's best chapters reads like an ant versus grasshopper fable between the two champions of the 1998-2001 teen pop bubble: Backstreet Boys producer Clive Calder, who smartly retired his family to the Cayman Islands after keeping his own costs low, and Backstreet Boys creator Lou Pearlman, who now lives in jail after losing 'N Sync and getting caught racketeering. Like a good investigative reporter, Knopper follows the money trail, detailing how labels continued to deduct vinyl-era "packaging" fees from artist's CD royalties, illustrating how Walmart and Best Buy were allowed to take over 65 per cent of U.S. music sales, and showing righteous anger over how the labels managed to fix CD prices at more than double the average $8.99 cost of a vinyl LP, even when they were several times cheaper to produce. After all the bad deals and worse music the big labels made, the final chapter ends by pointing to a more positive future. Radiohead's pay-what-you-can In Rainbows release gets a mention, as does Madonna's break with labels in favour of a touring company. Knopper sides with Wired editor Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" vision, where consumers quit collecting songs and instead subscribe to unlimited back catalogs. The best quote on the music industry’s future comes from Mark Williams, a long-time A&R rep at Interscope Records. "It's going to be like in the '50s and '60s when you had hundreds and hundreds of small labels," he said. "It's going to be a lot of trial and error. None of us know whether it'll work right. I laugh when people say, 'We're going to try to fix it.' They can try, but there's no real answer. It's over. It's just done."
venews // by jordie yow
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The ANZA Celebrates 75 Years Congratulations to the Australia-New Zealand Association club on existing for 75 years! The down under club located at 3 West 8th Avenue has been serving beer since 1935. To put that in perspective that is approximately as long as canned beer has existed, which was invented the same year. Over their 75 years the ANZA Club has evolved from a place for expats from the southern hemisphere to drink, to a hub of independent culture. It is the home of Psych night, the Celluloid Social Club, numerous concerts and a place where you can buy Vegemite from a vending machine. Hope they have another 75 years in them!
Malice Liveit Quits the Rickshaw In a note to members of the Rickshaw Theatre Facebook group, Malice Liveit, longtime promoter and organizer, announced that he would no longer be working with the Rickshaw or promoting shows. "I will be taking a break from promotion for a while and I will no longer be doing shows or be associated with the Rickshaw at all," he wrote on April 22 after giving props to many venues in town that will be having shows the upcoming weekend. Though he did not explicitly mention the death of You Say Party! We Say Die!'s drummer Devon Clifford, he did mention that the April 16 show where the drummer collapsed was his last show. Liveit was a powerhouse in Vancouver's music community who previously ran the Sweatshop. His announcement acknowledged all the artists and musicians in Vancouver, who he had utmost respect for. "We have some amazing musicians and artists that put themselves out there," wrote Liveit. "They stand up and follow their passions no matter what the cost." The Rickshaw will presumably continue to be run by Liveit's partner Dave Duprey.
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apollo ghosts by jordie yow illustration by tyler crich
T
he Divine Prophet is a friend of the Apollo Ghosts from Nanaimo. He is also a wrestler who casts himself as a deranged preacher and performs in the Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling league battling the likes of "The Loose Cannon" Kenny Lush, Fast Freddy Funk, Beautiful Bruce and the Mayor. ("You can't fight city hall!" yelled out Ghosts' singer and guitarist Adrian Teacher, after mentioning the Mayor. ) As the interview meandered over tacos in the Apollo Ghosts jamspace next to JC/DC studios in Gastown, we arrived upon the topic of "wrassling" (what the Ghosts call wrestling). I know that the Apollo Ghosts like wrestling because
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sometimes when they perform, the Divine Prophet often leaps onto the stage. He's a well-muscled, long-haired wrestler. They shot a wrestling themed video for "Angel Acres" featuring the Ghosts battling the Divine Prophet and Manther. There's a good out-take floating around in which Chris-A-Riffic (the big Nordic piano player and radio DJ with a high excited voice from Bible Belts, CiTR's Parts Unknown, and most concerts in Vancouver) gets bodyslammed. Amanda Panda, Adrian Teacher and Jay Oliver (not their real names, not even Jay Oliver) are fans of the small Vancouver-based league and all the pageantry, violence and drama that comes with it. "I suggest going to a tables, ladders and chairs match," said Oliver.
Kind of like a pufferfish.
"Unless you don't like blood. Then I wouldn't recommend going," added Panda. Though they're clearly fans of the sport itself, it's the colourful identities that really get them excited. "Kenny Lush kissed a baby!" Panda recalled excitedly from one match she witnessed. Lush had literally played out his role of the "babyface" in matches. The term is used in wrestling to describe a hero or classic good guy who doesn't break the rules (the Divine Prophet plays the polar opposite of the babyface, the heel). Though the Ghosts' own performances don't get quite as dramatic as a professional wrestling match, you can see a love of the dramatic costumes and posturing in their live set. At the release party for their album Mount Benson that was held at Little Mountain, Oliver played bass while wearing a Mexican wrestling mask, Panda beat the drums wearing a disco ball-eyed sea monster hood and Teacher was decked out in a pirate hat while he pretty much controlled the room. Though the other members play their own roles, Teacher especially is a performer. He is a force on the stage. It's an all-eyes-on-me performance and it shows. He starts every song with a quip or story before bursting out an exuberant performance that is a whirlwind of rock and roll bravado that features shouting, witty stage banter and a close physical performance that usually includes a lot of crowd surfing. Off stage, though, Teacher is the opposite. He's a mild-mannered school teacher, a nice guy who cracks a joke now and then and laughs easily. Put him in a full room and he'd prefer to quietly talk to a few people, unlike the commanding performer who appears on stage. "I certainly wish I could be the person I am on stage,'" said Teacher. "Normally I'm shy and quiet around most people and in most situations. I'd say I'm pretty socially awkward in a lot of ways. Being on stage is different, though. It's not that I'm comfortable there—I fuck up a lot and forget lyrics and chords—but I just feel confident and a bit ridiculous. Kind of like a pufferfish." One time, I was riding in Chris-A-Riffic's car, and he played me a tape of his show, Parts Unknown. On it, a band called Lala played. Lala was a FrenchCanadian band, and also a joke band, fronted by Teacher under the name of P'tit Jean and backed by his three sisters, Marie-Michele, Marie-May and Marie-Marie (a.k.a Amanda Panda). They were a jovial Acadian folk troupe playing off of every stereotype imaginable through a thick thick accent. It was hilarious, but it wasn't real. In the way that Lady Gaga, Bob Dylan and Prince aren't real, neither are Adrian Teacher and the Apollo Ghosts. Just as the Divine Prophet is not really the deranged villain he portrays, the Ghosts are not their stage personas. Sitting in their jamspace and petting the floor's shared cat, Loki (made famous by Neko Case in a picture on Pitchfork), they bring out the other side
of their personalities. "A lot of the songs on Mount Benson were written while [Teacher] was in the bathroom," Panda joked, when Teacher went to the bathroom. With Adrian out of the room, Oliver would reveal a bass line, Panda would join in with a beat and Teacher would rush back into the room shouting, "Keep doing that!" and join in. The band makes a point of seperating the other facets of their lives from their work as a band. "I like to keep my lives compartmentalized," said Oliver, which got Teacher to voice his agreement. Teacher is in fact a teacher. He tries not to let his students know he also fronts a band, though as the Ghosts become more well known, he finds it harder to keep the secret (a note to any of his students who read this: keep it a secret, shhh!). "I think in a few years we might see a few of [my students] coming out to shows," he said, though he seemed conflicted about whether this was a good thing. Teacher's moniker originates from his time in South Korea when he and Panda were teaching English to young children. Korea is also where he and Panda played in their first band together, the Omokgyo Dragons. Omokyo is the neighbourhood they lived in and is a good example of the use of location in the band's songs. Their first album Hastings-Sunrise is named for the Vancouver neighbourhood they live in, and Mount Benson is named for the mountain in Nanaimo (Panda and Teacher both grew up on Vancouver Island). Their songs are dotted with references to other places where they have spent time: "Shanghai Alley" is in Vancouver's Chinatown and "Witchcraft Lake" is near Mt. Benson. Though the other members weren't sure why so much of their material was about specific places, Panda mentioned that "it's a good way of situating something in a particular time and place." Their music, while fun, feels personal and one gets the impression they are about significant moments in their lives. The lyrics can be listened to, but not read because Teacher likes to "leave a bit of mystery" for the audience. Though the songs do, for the most part, have personal meanings to the band, they don't care if the audience interprets things differently. "If people get something else out of a song [than what I intended] that's great," said Teacher. The content of their personal lives may make up the meat of their song lyrics, but the front they put on on stage lets them keep some distance from their audience. Semi-professional wrestlers, musicians and all performers have two lives at the same time: public and private. The Ghosts' consciousness of this may be the key to their brilliance.
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Babe Rainbow
by Dorothy Neufeld photo by robert fougere
Cameron Reed is perhaps best known in Vancouver for his work with Music Waste and Only magazine, but he is also Babe Rainbow, a DJ recently signed to Warp Records. Discorder sat down with him to talk about discordancies and some hideously awesome pants.
Discorder: How would you describe your music? Cameron Reed: I don't know, I would just call my music dark.
D: How would you say your music reflects your personality? CR: I've generally been into the things that are more, you know, strange or obscure or experimental. Personally, I don't know. It's driving. I guess I've never thought about it like that before. I guess if you met me in person you wouldn't expect me to make the music that I make. I'm a pretty laid back guy, but I'm totally aware my music is anything but. It's pretty urgent and ominous, creepy. I wouldn't call myself creepy. I don't know. Maybe it's the opposite, maybe it's kind of one of those things where an artist kind of expresses the things he can't ... in the everyday. I don't know how much of a dark side there is to me.
D: What's the story behind your name?
CR: The name, I kind of, you know, came of age with music during sort of posthard core years, you know a lot of Blood Brothers, a lot of stuff on Killrockstars, a lot of that sort of post-, you know, early '00s/late '90s hardcore. And a lot of those bands and the second wave of bands had kind of, I always thought, silly names, but also fun and clever at the same time. The kind of names that pull two seemingly opposite words together and it would make a catchy name. I don't know, my best friends all used to play in a band called Raking Bombs, which also kinda sounds strange, but also gives you a very visceral image in your mind. Or Twin Crystals is another local band, two words that are seemingly different but you know when brought together bring an interesting image. I always thought that was kind of funny and Babe Rainbow is actually a painting by a pop artist named Peter Blake who was popular during the first wave of pop-art, and I remember seeing that painting. I was in college and I thought like, "Oh that's funny, Babe Rainbow... it's a lot like those, you know other post-hardcore band names." I always thought that it would be funny to name something like that but uh, you know, I didn't have the opportunity. I was already playing in a band called Hot Loins which is I guess another one of those band names where you pull two things together and make a ridiculous band name out of it. And then when this Babe Rainbow project came about, I realized that I needed a name, and I think I went through a handful of names before I was like, "Ah, screw it, I'll just go with the one I thought was funny."
D: That's awesome
CR: Kind of an accident you know. People seem to like it and I like the disparity between the sound of the music and the way the actual name makes you feel.
D: I like the way it feels like dub in some ways‌
CR: Yeah absolutely. I mean, it's funny because I'd say it's kind of a push and pull. I'm very much inspired by dub, by just dub music proper. But I'm definitely
using some elements of dubstep, but I don't really feel like I'm making either style of music. I'm not saying that I'm making something wholly original or different. But you know, I'm certainly drawing inspiration from both styles of music.
D: How did this all start?
CR: I think the music itself is a sound that I've been wanting, you know, drony music. Oftentimes the sound from the song that I've liked most from an album is usually dissonant. A friend of mine gave me copy of Ableton Live and I just ended up playing around with it. I had a MIDI controller and I had the ability to do it all on a computer. More than anything, I had decided I was tired of being a perfectionist and waiting too long to record.
D: What are you listening to right now?
CR: I've been really into the new Caribou album and the new Four Tet album. A guy that's on Warp Records as well just released his first album with Warp, his name is Gonjasufi. It's really an amazing kind of amalgamation of so many different styles of music. It's incredible. It's super refreshing because often you see people try to really do all styles of music at once. And I just like the freedom of, you know... it'll be whatever I want. It's my voice. You know it's the voice and the production that brings you in. It's not the style at all. So yeah he's been amazing. I'm working on a remix of his right now. I think its one of the new singles, "Holidays." It's a fantastic song. So yeah, I always pick up new stuff. I'm always downloading, you know, the new rap track come out. I'm a bit of junkie for following rap blogs, so I always have whatever new single is out for that.
D: What would you say your worst fashion secret is?
CR: Well I'm not too ashamed of them, but everyone that sees them feels that I should be. I have an awesome pair of Zooba pants, do you know what those are?
D: Nope
CR: They look like Golds Gym pants, and they're zebra print, and they're yellow and orange and they have a big Canucks logo on them. I'm pretty proud of them but people don't seem to like them.
D: Any future plans?
CR: I'm talking to the label about another EP. I'm trying to get together a few collaborations with a few rappers which I'm really excited about. I got another video coming out by a couple awesome production teams all collaborating on it that I'm really psyched about. I've been asked if I want to do a piece for an art opening in New York or something and the details are being worked out right now. Yeah, just always producing, always making music.
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Dan Snaith: Tinkerer, Scholar, Innovator, Gentleman By Jackie Wong illustration by Ehren salazar
I
t was 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night in London, England, and the phone rang five times as Dan Snaith rushed across the room to pick up the receiver. He's just come home from a day of rehearsal in the studio, and he's a little out of breath. "Hey, how are you?" he asked, even though I was the one bothering him for an interview. But Snaith is as generously kind as he is willing to expound passionately about his musical career as the frontman and visionary for Caribou, an infectiously lush electronic outfit with roots in Snaith's hometown of Dundas, Ontario. Snaith has performed as Caribou since 2004, when he changed his name from Manitoba after backing down from a name-related lawsuit with Richard "Handsome Dick" Manitoba, an American punk musician and lead singer of the Dictators. Snaith relocated to London in 2001 to start his PhD in mathematics at Imperial College London, which ended with the completion of his thesis, titled Overconvergent Siegel Modular Symbols, in 2005. "I loved studying mathematics.
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I loved being very in depth in this kind of arcane thing, just for the sake of the enjoyment of doing it," Snaith said. During his first four years in London, Snaith divided his time between his studies and a burgeoning musical career that started with the release of 2000's Start Breaking My Heart, an erudite collection of nostalgic pieces that evoke Snaith's small-town childhood of the 1980s. "I really can't imagine how I did both for so long, for five years," he admitted. "I mean, mathematical research, it's just such a competitive discipline... It really is kind of, 'You have to learn more than anybody else in order to understand the problems and to be able to solve things.' It's exhausting, and it's particularly exhausting if you want to do anything else." Snaith wanted to play music, even though his scholastic pursuits followed in the footsteps of his mother and father, both academics. "It's what I wanted to do since I can remember wanting to do anything," he said. While he's now left his academic career in the past, Snaith attacks his music with the cerebral precision and veracity of any serious mathematician. A
perpetual tinkerer, he experiments constantly with sound, texture, and rhythm, listening obsessively to the nuances of a wide-ranging music collection. A live set will see him enthusiastically jumping from drum kit to microphone to children's toy instruments and back, often to the backdrop of psychedelic videography put together by friends. Snaith's persistent thirst for innovation makes for a highly diverse and prolific career that's now spanned a decade. His album Andorra won the Polaris Music Prize. While he's grateful for the acclaim, Snaith doesn't want critics to define his career by one piece of work. "It's important for me that all the albums are different. I think it would be impossible to make a similar album to the one I've made previously, because over a year of working on it every single day, how could you be excited?" he said. "It's the process of making music that's really exciting for me. That feeling that I'm going to do something that I've never done before is an integral part of that." Enter Swim, Snaith's fifth album released this April, a month after his 32nd birthday. The album's lighthearted, dance-oriented production marks a strong departure from earlier Caribou. And Snaith feels more like himself than ever. "This time around, it was important for me to not have [musical] influences," he said. "None of the songs come from listening to another particular song. None of the songs come from listening to another particular artist. I wanted have my own fingerprint on the aesthetic combination of sound and really build up my own vocabulary." Swim's first single, "Odessa," is rife with impish booty beats influenced by
Snaiths' recent return to work as a DJ and, by extension, to club music. "[It]'s something that I haven't really had such a focus on, although it's always been something I've listened to," he explained. And while he'll be the first to admit that his musical taste has changed over the decade that he's been working as a musician, the tracks he chooses to curate his albums have also become more diverse. Swim is a far less unified product than 2003's panoramic Up in Flames, or even the recent '60s pop-tinged Andorra. In Swim, the opener "Odessa" gives nothing away as to how the rest of the album plays out. Snaith playfully alighted upon the percussive precision of "Bowls," switched quickly to the pop comforts of "Leave House" and then to the geometric "Hannibal." "Looking back, I've made a fair amount of music, and now the thing that's important to me is pushing the idea of making it really as much 'me' as possible," Snaith said. More than anything, the joy of Caribou is realizing a lifelong ambition that Snaith previously dismissed as just a dream. "When I think back before my first music was released, it just seemed a massive distance away. It seemed another world that people were releasing music and playing concerts. It seemed totally unattainable," he recalled. "So I always want to retain, [to] remember that perspective of it seeming so impossible that I'd be doing what I was doing right now." Of his career so far, Snaith said it's always had the character of a dream. "I just feel so lucky. I never want to lose that feeling."
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Come Together, Right Now
B
efore Carl Newman was known as the de facto leader of the New Pornographers, one of the most acclaimed indie rock groups of the 21st century, he was a teenager in suburban Vancouver. Before he was touring around the world and making a living by playing music, he was a music fan. And, just as you are now, he was reading Discorder, which first went into publication around the same time that a young Newman began getting into music. "I remember reading Discorder from the very beginning. I remember reading Discorder when I was 16, which was, like 1984 ... It's funny, Discorder's always had this place in ... the formative years of me loving music." On the line from his house in Woodstock, N.Y., where Newman has made his home for the past year or so, the ginger-haired patron saint of Vancouver indie pop discussed reading about local bands that "had, like, one cassette out, that they sold 100 copies of," he laughed. "But maybe they were in the Top 5 in Discorder ... and when I was 16 I thought, 'Wow, these guys are really it.' ... I look at the bands from that time, and I still don't think of myself as being
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by Dan Fumano illustration by mÉrida anderson
more famous than they are, even though I guess I know I am." A few years later, in his early twenties, Newman started playing in bands around Vancouver. "My first-ever band was Superconductor. I think it was 1990 when we first started ... I remember getting written up in Discorder and it seemed like such a big deal to me. It was like 'Wow! We made it! We're in Discorder!'" [ed. He said this without being paid any money at all!] After that, Newman played in Zumpano, then in 1997 formed the New Pornographers, pulling together enough talented people from other Vancouver bands that someone along the way decided that this wasn't just a group—it was a supergroup. In the current lineup, Newman (who has also enjoyed a successful solo career as A.C. Newman) shares the lead vocal duties with Neko Case (of Maow, Cub and her own solo career) and Dan Bejar (of Destroyer). The band also includes Newman's niece Kathryn Calder (also of Immaculate Machine), John Collins (of the Evaporators), Todd Fancey (a solo artist who performs as Fancey), filmmaker Blaine Thurier and Kurt Dahle (of Age of Electric and Limblifter).
We're always going to be a Vancouver band.
Since that time, of course, the New Pornographers have gone on to receive coverage from some publications other than Discorder (actually, pretty much all of the other publications), including spots in Rolling Stone's "Best Albums of the Decade" and Blender's "Best Indie Albums of All Time." Each of the New Pornographers' first four albums of expertly crafted power pop figured prominently on critics' "Best Albums of the Year" lists, and there's no reason to think that their fifth album will be any different, with all of the love that they get from critics and fans at home and abroad, it was no great surprise, then, when the New Pornographers took the top spot as the favourite Vancouver band of the past ten years (2000-2009) in Discorder's own informal poll. No great surprise, maybe, except to Newman. "Really? We beat Black Mountain?" he asked. "Damn. That's really nice of people to say." Pressed to name his favourite Vancouver act of the 2000s, Newman said that although he doesn't really want to pit friends against one another, he would probably have to pick Destroyer. But with Newman now residing in New York and with Neko Case living in the U.S. since the early years of the band, does that make the New Pornographers more of an international, bi-coastal group? Can we still call them a Vancouver band? "Of course," Newman replied, without a second's hesitation. "Just because you find yourself going to another city, doesn't mean you're not from where you're from. We're always going to be a Vancouver band ... I never claim to be from New York, I don't claim to be from Woodstock. People ask me where I'm from, you know—I'm from Vancouver." The recording of Together followed the same path as Newman himself, beginning in Vancouver, then moving to upstate New York. Early recording sessions for the new album were in Vancouver at both the Factory and JC/DC, John Collins' studio where earlier New Pornos albums were recorded. Then, the rest of the album was recorded on Newman's property in upstate New York, where the guest cottage was set up as a recording studio. "It was good for me because I had just moved here and I wanted to be here a lot. And it's a nice place—upstate New York in the summer is a very nice place to be. It's just a different kind of recording atmosphere, where when you take a break, you can go out onto the lawn and it's sunny out. I know Todd [Fancey] likes wandering through the woods, he's got that in him. We went on a couple of hikes while we were here." Recording at the cottage was, according to Newman, like "the typical way we've always recorded, like a little drop-in centre." Each of the eight members were there at one time or another, but :"people weren't always here at the same time, people kind of came and went, and there would be, like, five people here at once." The Together recording sessions also involved Newman and company reaching
out for a little help from their friends and the list of collaborations is pretty impressive; they've got Sharon Jones' Dap Kings on the album (They're pretty much the best horn section you could ask for," Newman claimed.), Okkervil River's Will Sheff singing backup on the opening track "Moves" (Newman's favourite song from the new material), Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, contributing guitar to "My Shepherd" ("She's like Hendrix".), and, just because Newman "thought this song needs trumpet," they've got Zach Condon of Beirut blowing on there. "I've always been a big fan of having as many ideas thrown around as possible and having as many different people play on a record as possible," Newman explained. "People always talk about us being a 'collective' and even though [these other collaborators] are not part of the collective, or whatever you would call it, I always like to have a lot of musical ideas to choose from. And when you have people like that who contribute their musical ideas, it's nice. It's a privilege." Asked if this sense of musical collaboration and community inspired the title Together, Newman agreed. "I think so. To a certain extent... calling the record Together somehow seemed right. I actually ran it past Dan first. I said, 'Dan I've gotta ask you something, I've been thinking of calling this record Together— what do you think?' And Dan said [in Newman's best whispery Dan Bejar impression] 'I think that's an awesome title.' And I thought, 'That's good enough for me.'" This idea of togetherness seems to be important here, popping up in Newman's discussion of the album, in a couple of the songs (notably "Your Hands (Together)" the first sample Matador released from the album, as well as the sweeping, epic "We End Up Together," which closes the disc) and in the beautifully written piece that accompanied advance copies of Together. The essay, by American novelist Rick Moody (who wrote The Ice Storm), includes ruminations on the history and purpose of the popular song and considers the New Pornographers' place within that rich tradition. Moody writes that the new album contains "Fewer keyboard flourishes, and fewer things that sound like they necessitated a good computer programmer, and more things that sound like A.C. Newman and the rest of the band playing in a room." Newman explained further that Together is "one of those generic titles that's been used many times before, but somehow it just seemed very appropriate. It carries on the idea what we've always done through the years, appropriating clichés and just trying to make them your own." This seems to go along with Moody's musings, this idea of appropriating clichés and making them your own; it sounds like a key element in the history of pop music, love songs or any art. And so does Newman's next comment: "It's something that it doesn't matter how many times you say it, it still rings true."
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Film Stripped //
Susanne Tabata interviewing Joey Ramone
Bloodied But Unbowed Interview with Susanne Tabata by Sarah Charrouf photo by bev davies
Susanne Tabata, the filmmaker behind Bloodied But Unbowed, the documentary about Vancouver's punk scene, sat down with me at Antisocial Skate Shop to talk about the early days in Vancouver punk. Amidst our conversations about politics, skateboarding, film making and the differences between punk then and punk now, we managed to get a few interview questions in. Discorder: How did you get involved in the punk scene? Susanne Tabata: I was a university student at UBC and I had my own radio show on CiTR and we were very involved in promoting the music of the Vancouver punk scene ... back in those days, we used to have 45s, and in the punk scene in V it was very inexpensive to press 45s—you didn't have to have a lot of money to put out a single and a B-side. At CiTR we were very interested in what was going on in the punk scene. In addition to that, I have to be honest, we were also very interested in the sounds that were coming out of London at the time. Punk had sort of come and gone, in a way, in the markets of London and New
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York. But what was coming out of those areas—the biggest bang—there was a prolific amount of great music that was being released between '77 and '79, right through to '81. At CiTR we were very interested in this vinyl, there was no other forum for it. Co-op radio broadcast some of it, but we were very interested in the punk scene. I mean, Iggy Pop sat in the room at CiTR. I have that backstage pass: "Iggy Pop: SUB Ballroom." That was his dressing room, and he ate a vegetarian plate, and that was back in 1979. So yes, I was there and I was part of it. I was also involved in the first cable television show, a live variety show, where we played a lot of videos that were starting to come out of the U.K.
markets. We interviewed the local bands. It was called Night Graves. CiTR was so important in the story because at the time, there was a concert promoting company, called Perryscope Concerts. They had set up shop in Vancouver and brought in all those bands. They brought in the Iggys and the Ramones and all that and the unknowns at the time. [Local promoter] Norman Perry used to tap into the university crowd to listen to and get a sense of what we thought what was the good music to listen to. He was a terrific ear for what the underground student population thought would be an interesting musical direction. CiTR was really influential back then.
D: Do you think that punk music then was a small subculture, where it was only a few people that made the whole scene?
ST: No way! And I don't think we ever called the Vancouver scene "the punk scene." I think it was, at the time, what was happening. It was "the scene," but for a very small minority of people. It was a small population of kids— predominantly white, overwhelmingly male—and it was an underground scene. I don't know what I would compare it to today. You'd be able to tell me what's a comparable scene that nobody pays attention to. This was a scene that nobody gave a shit about. You really have to understand, no one cared. It was very underground, but punk also became a brand. Punk, over time, became something that you actually found a section of in a record store. And then there's all the sub-genres of punk. This story that I'm doing is even before the hardcore punk. This story takes place in the late 1970s and sort of peters out in '81, '82. This is when hardcore really started to grow in southern California.
D: Can you tell us a little about the movie? Are there a lot of interviews? Who is featured in it?
Subhumans and D.O.A. had their own sound. Those sounds were part of the punk scene; they weren't the punk scene. The scene was really eclectic. It involved many different sounds. Sounds that we would call pop or New Wave. Maybe even post-punk, but the history in music is that punk in Vancouver was influenced by the U.K. By 1981, 1982, the centre of punk had shifted from England to southern California. Out of that Huntington Beach area, if you had been there you definitely know where a lot of the driving personality comes out of that area, that's what happened. The sound of punk changed. Certainly due to Joe Keithly's determination and dogged persistence, most of the other bands in Vancouver packed it up, and D.O.A. kept going and that sort of is where the story leaves off if you will: with a tribute to the birth, the life, the death of the original punk scene. Are you going to come and see it?
D: Of course, yeah. I'm actually really excited about it.
ST: Really, because it's so old. I was actually thinking what the average person in the early 20s—what's relevant to your age group? I don't expect you to like the music. And I don't expect you to be enamoured with any of the characters necessarily in the film. But I think that what my objective would be for the younger audience to walk away with is certainly a sense of what a scene is and what your relevance in the scene is. That scene was certainly relevant to me. It's probably not relevant to you. It's probably historically interesting. I just believe that if you can tell a really good story and you can access different age groups, which was my goal, I didn't target this for your age, and I didn't target it for my age group. It's meant for everybody.
D: I want to ask you about the local scene today, if you're involved in it and how do you view it?
D: How did you get involved in making the movie?
ST: I'm not involved it it. But I've been to different gigs. I still know people that are tied into it. I appreciate it's going on, but I've got really little time to take it in. It's not my scene anymore. It's your scene, it's not my scene. I see it's valid, I see it's vital. I see the energy. I've been to some of the Cobalt shows. I'm really interested to know what punk means today, because when we were doing it, and I wasn't doing it, I was watching it. It was really not accepted in the mainstream. This was the underclass.
ST: It's not my first documentary. I've done two other subculture pieces. One is on women's skateboarding, Skate Girl. Prior to that, the Canadian surfing documentary, 49 Degrees, which is about the West Coast story, not the East Coast story. I basically went through a big upheaval in my life. It caused me to go through my scrapbooks and I stopped at this one scrapbook I had collected while I was a university student, which had all these pictures of CiTR and these interviews I had done. I thought "Wow, this was a really interesting time." Concurrent to that, about three years ago, Bev Davies was doing a show at the Jem Gallery—144 Punk Rock Photographs. I met her at the Modernettes gig. I brought my camera and I just started shooting all the people who showed up and thought, "This is a really great story." I mean, it's a great music scene. So that's how it started. I had thought originally that the best story would be one that is character driven, so I was looking for strong personalities to tell the story. I think I found them. Locally we've featured Art Bergmann, Gerry Barad, Brian Goble, Mike Graham, Joe ["Shithead"] Keithly of course, from D.O.A., Randy Rampage, Zippy Pinhead, all the Pointed Sticks, Buck Cherry, the Dishrags and some other people. As far as names: Henry Rollins. I don't know if you guys know ... Do you know who Henry Rollins is?
D: Can you tell us a little bit about females in the punk scene? ST: Back in the late '70s, the attitudes toward women in general were so different than they are now. What women had to put up with to be artists, musicians, journalists or aspiring professionals in the music industry is quite a bit different than it is today. We touch on that a little bit in the film. You'll get it. There was one band who was all female, the Dishrags. Their story comes out a little bit. I think it'll be quite enlightening. The punk scene in Vancouver at the time was a mixture of the young white suburban kids that were coming in to make music, and it was fused with the Vancouver art school scene. That group of people was very much male and female, and they tended to be a little bit older than a lot of the punks that had come in from the suburbs. But as far as the music, was it inclusive? No, I don't think it was. It was more male driven. The Dishrags will tell you. They were allowed to go on the battle of the bands as a backup band. They weren't allowed to enter as a band because they were girls. Things did change. The punk era was a door breaking, pivotal point in rock music. It was overtly sexist in those days, I would say. Even in a punk scene that was quite inclusive, there could be, on the music level, some sense of that sexism.
ST: I just don't know who people know anymore. Keith Morris from the Circle Jerks— and he is the original singer in Black Flag. Duff McKagen from Guns & Roses.
Bloodied But Unbowed: Uncut will be shown May 13 at 7 p.m. at the Granville 7 theatre as part of DOXA. There will also be a television version of the film which will be shown on the Knowledge Network.
ST: It is a character driven oral history of the scene. And it's driven by the people who were there, mostly musicians. Those interviews take place, of course, in present day. The essence of the energy of the piece is captured in a combination of using the music tracks of the era, along with stock footage and photographs, and a hell of a lot of work. It's been a lot of work.
D: Yes.
D: You mentioned the hardcore scene. So the film caps off when the hardcore scene started?
ST: Yeah. Intuitively, instinctively and through their own creative forces, the
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Neanderthal dirtbags... with a conscience? By Scott Lyon illustration by tj reynolds
S
ince the release of their debut album Earthbound in 2007, Vancouver's favourite dirt-bag sons Bison B.C. have been giving their audience a reason to shower beer over the sweaty throngs of fellow metalheads alongside them at every show. Songs like "These Are My Dress Clothes" and "Earthbound" compel you to crack several beers and scream along. Inevitably, though, the party has to come to an end. People "mature," tastes "refine," and before we know it, we're all fawning over the latest vintage of Pinot Blanc from the Okanagan. But once in a while you get that friend that achieves an amazing balance of the two. Sure, they care about global warming and they've cut down on their salt intake–but they never ditch on a good kegger come Friday night. Enter Bison's latest release, Dark Ages. Following the heavy intro to opener "Stressed Elephant," Bison roll out the french horn. With all apologies to "Peter and the Wolf," has the french horn ever been cool?
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Well, now it is. On Dark Ages, Bison have brought a maturity to their music without abandoning the riffs that make you want to jump-kick through a coffee table. The arrangements are more complex, the lyrics more insightful, but the end result remains the same. Discorder caught up with frontman James Farwell in Greenville, South Carolina in the middle of their tour with High on Fire, Priestess, and Black Cobra and discussed Dark Ages, the band's seemingly non-stop touring cycle and a shared fascination of Insane Clown Posse and the Juggalo culture. "The last few tours have been great," Farwell started. "We've had the opportunity to tour with some great bands and really make some lasting friendships in every city, which is the upside of touring." While the current tour with High on Fire will create little friction amongst audience members given both bands' propensities to gravitate towards heavy, chugging riffs, some of Bison's other tours have been stranger pairings—like
It's a city of dreams. If you can fulfill any of those dreams without succumbing to those sort of greedy ideals that are encompassing our city right now—if you can carve out your niche and have a good life there—then you've done some good, honest work, because it's a hard city to live in!
their recent stretch with Boston metalcore act, Shadows Fall. Yet instead of shaking their heads at the bad match, Farwell relished the opportunity to play for audiences unaccustomed to Bison's particular brand of heavy metal. "The great thing about playing on an eclectic bill is you get the opportunity to possibly broaden someone's musical horizons. Worst case scenario, someone's left in the audience thinking, 'Who were those hairy idiots jumping around? I don't understand what they're up to.'" Playing in smaller, more obscure markets can also bring about some amusing tour anecdotes. Those in attendance at Bison's Halloween show with Black Mountain will remember the band dressed up as members of Insane Clown Posse. Farwell recalls that the last time the band were in South Carolina, "a guy pulled up beside us in this busted up Cadillac sporting the worst faded, shitty "Hatchet Man" [one of Insane Clown Posse's logos] tattoo. I mean, it's a whole different planet down here." In between several tours to support their second album, Quiet Earth, Bison recorded Dark Ages at the Hive Recording Studios in Burnaby with Jesse Gander taking over recording and producing duties for the third time. Farwell described the writing process for Earthbound and Quiet Earth as more "organic," but he maintained that there was a structure and texture that he has been aiming to bring into Bison's music—something he feels the band has achieved with Dark Ages. "During the recording of Quiet Earth, I started thinking that if you're going to be writing an eight-minute song, it's not only the riffs that are important, it's the arrangement. On Dark Ages, we've really stepped it up on plotting out the songs a bit more," Farwell said. Farwell stated that in particular, Gander's familiarity with the band helped them improve their vocal arrangements. "I don't like having to worry about that stuff. Jesse was a great help with that. I mean, he didn't change the way I sing—I still pretty much yell, in key—but delivery and placement? That's Jesse's thing. Me? I'm a Neanderthal. I don't fucking know, man!"
Yet for a self-professed Neanderthal, the introspective quality of Farwell's lyrics on Dark Ages is further evidence of the band's musical evolution. While in Quiet Earth and Earthbound wizards and bison-headed alien races abound, Dark Ages sees Farwell largely abandoning fantasy in favour of the harsh realities of poverty and drug addiction plaguing our city. On "Two Day Booze," Farwell yells, "Vancouver's an empty bottle, our thirst causing problems," while on "Die of Devotion" he spits out, "Die of Devotion, chasing a veiled dream / Die of devotion / Your blood, the needle / Your heart, the bottle." For Farwell, this was just another part of the band's growth, "I'm just trying to live a bit more in reality these days, you know? Ivv mean, what's happening with Vancouver, it's the same old thing. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. I've just never written about it as personally before as I did on this album." The frontman for the band that played a Fuck the Olympics gig in February continues, "It's a city of dreams. If you can fulfill any of those dreams without succumbing to those sort of greedy ideals that are encompassing our city right now, if you can carve out your niche and have a good life there, then you've done some good, honest work, because it's a hard city to live in!" After their current touring stretch, Bison will be returning home in early May before embarking on another Canadian tour followed by a European tour in the fall. They're also looking to release their catalogue on vinyl, "It's going to happen. Our label isn't too into doing vinyl right now, so we're just looking into alternative routes for that to happen," said Farwell. As for taking a break, that doesn't seem very likely in the foreseeable future. "I'm already toying with ideas for the next album," Farwell admitted. "I'd like to take no longer than a year before our next release." So in closing, a few suggestions then: One, buy Dark Ages, it'll blow your balls off (ladies, I'm sure it'll tickle your ovaries or whatever the anatomical heavy metal equivalent might be). Two, come out and see Bison when they come home—and bring a few friends with you. Three, buy these guys a beer or six—they've worked too hard to return to an empty bottle.
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Henry Rollins @ The Centre in LCD Soundsystem, Holy Vancouver for Performing Arts Ghost! @ Malkin Bowl 30 The Buzzcocks @ Venue Fools Gold, Sun Wizard, Sage Francis @ Biltmore My!Gay!Husband! @ Biltmore Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros @ Commodore
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The Fugitives @ Biltmore Broken Bells, The Morning Benders @ Commodore Girls @ Venue
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Box Elders, Student Teacher Frog Eyes, In Medias Res, @ Biltmore Shane Turner Overdrive Hypocrisy, Scar Symmetry, @ Biltmore Hate, Blackguard, Swashbuckle, Nylithia @ Rickshaw Morlove @ Little Mountain
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Earth Crisis, Thick As Blood, The Tallest Man on Earth, Blood Envy, Galgamex, Last Nurses @ St. James Hall Plague @ Rickshaw Mono, the Twilight Sad Johann Johannsson @ Biltmore @ Biltmore
The Eagles @ GM Place Birds Fled from Me, John Houx, Friendship & the Fawn, Jenna Rogers @ Little Mountain
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Owen Pallett, Snowblink @ Vogue The Eagles @ GM Place Turin Brakes @ Venue
Plants & Animals, Said the Whale @ Commodore Myelin Sheaths, Student Teacher, Womankind, Role Mach @ Pat's Pub Miss Emily Brown, Steve Brockley @ Little Mountain
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WEDNESDAY
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4
TUESDAY
The Antlers, Phantogram @ Biltmore Grass Mountain Hobos, LMNOP @ Railway
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MONDAY
N端 Sensae, Purple Rhinestone Eagle @ Antisocial
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SUNDAY
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Bob Wiseman @ Little Mountain Fuck Buttons @ Biltmore Kellarissa, connect_icut, Holzkopf, Dr. Dad's Sound Lab @ Blim Indian Wars, Student Teacher, Bummer High @ Funky's Fuzzcat, Way to go Einstein, Arctic, Mani Khaira @ Railway
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Noah D, DJ Dabbler, Taal Mala @ Biltmore Canaries, Fake Shark Real Zombie, Supercassette @ 917 Main Petunia & the Vipers, Catherine MacLellan, the Olympic Symphonium @ Little Mountain
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FRIDAY
29 Massive Attack, Martina Topley Bird @ Malkin Bowl Caribou, Toro Y Moi @ Rickshaw Vetiver @ Biltmore
28 The Very Best, Love & Electrik, No Gold @ Biltmore La Conde, Defektors, Peace @ Funky's Knucklehead, the Vicious Cycles, the Tranzmitors, Rich Hope @ Rickshaw
Andymori, Mothercoat, Owarikara, Goomi, Kulu Kulu Garden @ Biltmore 3 Inches Of Blood, Goatwhore, Haggatha @ Rickshaw White Lung , Tight Solid @ Funky's
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Bob Wiseman @ Little Mountain Frightened Rabbit, Maps & Atlases, Our Brother the Native @ Biltmore Trophy Wife, Crimson Roots, Cocaine Moustache, Hidden Towers @ Pub 340 Places With Faces @ Princeton Pub
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Dan Mangan @ Vogue Sex Church, Idle Times, Modern Creatures, Manic Attracts @ Pat's Pub Selina Koop, Ben Rogers, 11001100110 @ Little Mountain Certain Breeds, Terror Bird, Digits @ Funky's
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Ghislain Poirier, MC Zulu, Love & Electrik @ Biltmore Animal Bodies, Walter TV @ Astoria Lesbian Fist Magnet, Gynosaurus X @ Funky's Shearing Pinx, N端 Sensae @ Lick Ladyhawk, Makeout Videotape, Needles & Pins @ Rickshaw
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SATURDAY
photo by mike irvine // check out antisocial during this month for more of his work
Public Enemy, Juiceboxxx @ Commodore Girls @ Venue Why?, Donkeys, Josiah Wolf @ Biltmore
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The Tequila Mockingbird Unleash the Archers, Orchestra, Fish & Bird, Maria Foquored, Aquila @ Funky's in the Shower @ Biltmore Danko Jones @ Venue The Dustin Bentall Outfit Breakage, Daega Sound, Max @ Venue Ulis @ Biltmore Mass Grave, Haggatha @ Funky's
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Fucked Up, Grown-Ups @ Biltmore Excision @ Fortune Sound Club
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Brasstronaut, the Zolas @ St. James Hall No Bunny, Myelin Sheaths, Bad News Babysitters @ Pat's Pub Meaghan Smith @ Media Club Jonathan Richman @ Biltmore
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THURSDAY
// CiTR 101.9 FM PROGRAM GUIDE Discorder suggests listening to CiTR online at www.citr.ca every day. SUNDAY
MONDAY
6am 7
CiTR Ghost Mix Pacific Pickin' (Roots) CiTR Ghost Mix
10
Shookshookta (Talk)
11
Kol Nodedi (World)
1
Breakfast With The Browns (Eclectic)
Stranded (Eclectic) Alt Radio (Talk)
12pm The Rockers Show (Reggae)
Pop Drones (Eclectic)
Morning After Show (Eclectic)
Anoize (Noise)
Laugh Tracks (Talk) Give 'Em the Boot (Talk)
2
4 5
Blood On Shameless The Saddle (Eclectic) (Roots) Chips (Pop)
Saint Tropez (Pop)
8 9 10 11
Queer FM (Talk) Rhythms (World)
Awesome (Ecl)
The Rib (Eclectic) News 101 (Talk)
This Side of Monday (Eclectic) Exploding Head Movies (Eclectic)
Mondo Trasho (Eclectic) Transcendance (Dance)
Weners BBQ (Sports)
The Jazz Show (Jazz)
Flex Your Head (Hardcore) Life On Jumpstreet (Dance)
Crimes And Treasons (Hip-hop)
Sore Throats, Clapping Hands (Eclectic)
End of the World News (Talk)
4 5
22
CiTR Ghost Mix
Sweet And Hot (Jazz)
6am
Democracy Now (Talk)
Ink Studs (Talk)
Arts Report (Talk)
Samsquantch (Ecl)
CiTR Ghost Mix
9
Ska-T's Scenic Drive (Ska)
Barnburner (Eclectic)
Rumbletone Radio A Go Go (Rock)
8
Synchronicity (Talk)
We All Fall Down (Eclectic)
Japanese Musicquest (World)
10 11
Generation Anihilation (Punk)
Power Chord (Metal)
Radio Zero (Dance)
12pm 1 2 3
French Connection (World)
Nardwuar Presents (Nardwuar)
Code Blue (Roots)
Native Solidarity News (Talk)
News 101 (Talk)
The Leo Ramirez Show (World)
5
Are You Aware (Eclectic)
Hot Mess (Eclectic)
Nasha Volna (World)
6
Exquisite Corpse (Experimental)
African Rhythms (Eclectic)
Fill In
4
Notes from the Underground (Electronic/Hip-hop)
7 8
Folk Oasis (Roots)
Sexy In Van City (Talk) Hans Kloss Misery Hour (Hans Kloss)
Live From Thunderbird Radio Hell (Live) Hypnotic Groove (Dance)
Aural Tentacles (Eclectic)
CiTR Ghost Mix
Friday Sunrise (Eclectic)
The Green Majority (Talk)
2 CiTR Ghost Mix
SATURDAY
The Saturday Edge (Roots)
1
3
CiTR Ghost Mix
Fill In
Reel to Real (Talk)
CabaRadio (Talk)
12am
CiTR Ghost Mix
FRIDAY
Duncan's Donuts (Eclectic)
Wings (Talk) Radio Freethinker (Talk)
Career Fast Track (Talk)
6 7
Fill In
Suburban Jungle (Eclectic)
Third Time's The Charm (Rock)
Parts Unknown (Pop)
3
CiTR Ghost Mix
THURSDAY
7 Sounds of Africa (World)
Tana Radio (World)
WEDNESDAY
Prof Talk (Talk)
8 9
TUESDAY
Rainbow Groove (Dance)
Synaptic Sandwich (Dance/Electronic/ Eclectic)
Shake A Tail Feather (Soul/R&B)
10 11
Beats From The Basement (Hip-hop)
The Vampire's Ball (Industrial)
9
Dreamscene Radio (Dance)
12am 1 2 3
CiTR Ghost Mix
CiTR Ghost Mix CiTR Ghost Mix
4 5
SUNDAY Tana Radio (World) 9-10am Shookshookta (Talk) 10-11am A program targeted to Ethiopian people that encourages education and personal development. Kol Nodedi (World) 11am-12pm Beautiful arresting beats and voices emanating from all continents, corners and voids. Always rhythmic, always captivating. Always crossing borders. The Rockers Show (Reggae) 12-3pm Reggae inna all styles and fashion. Blood On The Saddle (Roots) 3-5pm Alternating Sundays Real cowshit-caught-in-yerboots country. Shameless (Eclectic) 3-5pm Alternating Sundays Dedicated to giving local music acts a crack at some airplay. When not playing the PR shtick, you can hear some faves you never knew you liked. Chips With Everything (Pop) 5-6pm Alternating Sundays British pop music from all decades. International pop (Japanese, French, Swedish, British, US, etc.), '60s soundtracks and lounge. Saint Tropez (Pop) 5-6pm Alternating Sundays Welcome to St. Tropez! Playing underrated music from several decades! st.tropez101.9@gmail.com Queer FM (Talk) 6-8pm Dedicated to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transexual communities of Vancouver. Lots of human interest features, background on current issues and great music. queerfmradio@gmail.com Rhythmsindia (World) 8-9pm
Alternating Sundays Featuring a wide range of music from India, including popular music from the 1930s to the present; Ghazals and Bhajans, Qawwalis, pop and regional language numbers. All Awesome In Your Ears (Eclectic) 8-9pm Alternating Sundays Mondo Trasho (Eclectic) 9-10pm The one and the only Mondo Trasho with Maxwell Maxwell—don't miss it! Trancendance (Dance) 10pm-12am Join us in practicing the ancient art of rising above common ideas as your host DJ Smiley Mike lays down the latest trance cuts. trancendance@ hotmail.com
MONDAY Prof Talk (Talk) 7:30-8am Prof Talk is a radio talk show that brings UBC professors in to talk about current/past events at the local and international level. http://ubcproftalk. wordpress.com proftalk@gmail.com Breakfast With The Browns (Eclectic) 8-11am Your favourite Brownsters, James and Peter, offer a savoury blend of the familiar and exotic in a blend of aural delights. breakfastwiththebrowns@ hotmail.com Stranded (Eclectic) 11am-12pm Join your host Matthew for a weekly mix of exciting sounds, past and present, from his Australian homeland. And journey with him as he features fresh tunes and explores the alternative musical heritage of Canada. Alternative Radio (Talk) 12-1pm Hosted by David Barsamian. Parts Unknown (Pop) 1-3pm An indie pop show since 1999, it's like a marshmallow sandwich: soft and
sweet and best enjoyed when poked with a stick and held close to a fire. The Rib (Eclectic) 4-5pm Explore the avant-garde world of music with host Robyn Jacob on the Rib. From new electronic and experimental music to improvised jazz and new classical! So weird it will blow your mind! News 101 (Talk) 5-6pm Vancouver's only live, volunteer-produced, student and community newscast. Every week, we take a look back at the week's local, national and international news, as seen from a fully independent media perspective. Career Fast Track (Talk) 6-6:30pm Join host and author Philippe Desrochers as he teaches you how to dramatically INCREASE your income doing work you LOVE. This Side Of Monday (Eclectic) 6:30-7:30pm Fun and independent music supported by a conversational monologue of information, opinion and anecdotes focusing on the here, the now and the next week. becktrex@gmail.com Exploding Head Movies (Eclectic) 7:30-9pm The Jazz Show ( Jazz) 9pm-12am Vancouver's longest running prime-time jazz program. Hosted by Gavin Walker. Features at 11pm. May 3: Pianist/composer Jaki Byard and his quartet recorded live. May 10: Polish trumpeter/ composer Tomasz Stanko is one of the stars of this year's Jazz Fest. His new group and album are called Dark Eyes. May 17: Alto saxophone master Jackie McLean would have celebrated his birthday today. We'll play Swing, Swang, Swingin'. May 24: Charles Mingus considered Let My Children Hear Music one of his finest.
May 31: Trombonist Bennie Green and tenor saxophone titan Gene Ammons are both heard on our show's theme. We'll play their album, The Swingin'est! Sore Throats, Clapping Hands (Eclectic) 12am-1am Sore Throats Clapping Hands relies on simple melodies and poignant lyricism to drive our passions. We embrace music that takes little production and, for that reason, is extremely accessible to play, share, create and enjoy—music that can be produced with little more than clapping hands and sore throats.
TUESDAY Pacific Pickin' (Roots) 6-8am Bluegrass, old-time music, and its derivatives with Arthur and the lovely Andrea Berman. pacificpickin@yahoo.com Sounds of Africa (World) 8-9:30am Showcasing music, current affairs and news from across the African continent and the diaspora, you will learn all about beat and rhythm and it will certainly kickstart your day. Third Time's The Charm (Rock) 9:30-11:30am Open your ears and prepare for a shock! A harmless note may make you a fan! Deadlier than the most dangerous criminals! borninsixtynine@ hotmail.com Morning After Show (Eclectic) 11:30am-1pm An eclectic mix of Canadian indie with rock, experimental, world, reggae, punk and ska from Canada, Latin America and Europe. The Morning After Show has local bands playing live on the Morning After Sessions. Laugh Tracks (Talk) 1-2pm Laugh Tracks is a show about comedy. Kliph Nesteroff from the 'zine, Generation Exploitation, hosts. generationexploit@yahoo.
com, musicalboot@ yahoo.ca Give 'em the Boot (World) 2-3pm Sample the various flavours of Italian folk music from north to south, traditional to modern on this bilingual Italian/English show. Un programma bilingue che esplora il mondo della musica etnica italiana. Wings (Talk) 3-3:30pm Radio Freethinker (Talk) 3:30-4:30pm Promoting skepticism, critical thinking and science, we examine popular extraordinary claims and subject them to critical analysis. The real world is a beautiful and fascinating place and we want people to see it through the lens of reality as opposed to superstition. Wener's Barbeque (Sports) 4:30-6pm Daryl Wener talks about the world of sports. Everything from the Canucks to the World Rock Paper Scissors Championship. ethanwener@hotmail.com Flex Your Head (Hardcore) 6-8pm Punk rock and hardcore since 1989. Bands and guests from around the world. Life On Jumpstreet (Dance) 8-9pm Crimes & Treasons (Hip-hop) 9-11pm crimesandtreasons@ gmail.com CabaRadio (Talk) 11pm-12:30am For the world of Cabaret. Tune in for interviews, skits, musical guests and more. It's rvvadio with sass!
WEDNESDAY Suburban Jungle (Eclectic) 8-10am Live from the Jungle Room, join radio host Jack Velvet for an eclectic mix of music, sound bites, information and inanity. Not to be missed! dj@jackvelvet.net
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Pop Drones (Eclectic) 10-11:30am
jazz from the 1920s, '30s and '40s.
Anoize (Noise) 11:30am-1pm An hour and a half of avantrock, noize, plunderphonic, psychedelic and outsider aspects of audio. An experience for those who want to be educated and EARitated. lukemeat@hotmail.com
Duncan's Donuts (Eclectic) 12-1pm Sweet treats from the pop underground. Hosted by Duncan, sponsored by donuts. duncansdonuts. wordpress.com
The Green Majority (Talk) 1-2pm Canada's only environmental news hour, syndicated by CIUT 89.5 FM Toronto or www.greenmajority.ca. Democracy now (Talk) 2-3pm Rumbletone Radio a go go (Rock) 3-5pm Primitive, fuzzed-out garage mayhem! Arts Report (Talk) 5-6pm Reel to Real (Talk) 6-6:30pm Movie reviews and criticism. Samsquantch's Hideaway (Eclectic) 6:30-8pm Alternating Wednesdays All-Canadian music with a focus on indie rock/pop. anitabinder@hotmail.com Folk Oasis (Roots) 8-10pm Two hours of eclectic folk/ roots music, with a big emphasis on our local scene. C'mon in! A kumbaya-free zone since 1997. folkoasis@gmail.com Sexy In Van City (Talk) 10-11pm Your weekly dose of education and entertainment in the realm of relationships and sexuality. sexyinvancity.com/category/ sexy-in-vancity-radio Hans Kloss' Misery Hour (Hans Kloss) 11pm-1am Pretty much the best thing on radio.
THURSDAY End of the World News (Talk) 8-10am Sweet And Hot ( Jazz) 10am-12pm Sweet dance music and hot
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We All Fall Down (Eclectic) 1-2pm Punk rock, indie pop and whatever else I deem worthy. Hosted by a closet nerd. www.weallfalldowncitr. blogspot.ca
Aural Tentacles (Eclectic) 12-6am It could be global, trance, spoken word, rock, the unusual and the weird, or it could be something different. Hosted by DJ Pierre. auraltentacles@hotmail.com
FRIDAY Friday Sunrise (Eclectic) 7:30-9am An eclectic mix of indie rock, hip-hop and reggae to bring you up with the sun.
Ink Studs (Talk) 2-3pm Underground and indie comix. Each week, we interview a different creator to get their unique perspective on comix and discuss their upcoming works.
Synchronicity (Talk) 9-10am Join host Marie B and discuss spirituality, health and feeling good. Tune in and tap into good vibrations that help you remember why you're here: to have fun! This is not your average spirituality show.
Japanese Musicquest (World) 3-3:30pm Syndicated from CJLY Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson, B.C.
Ska-T's Scenic Drive (Ska) 10am-12pm Canada's longest running Ska radio program. djska_t@hotmail.com
French Connection (World) 3:30-5pm French language and music.
Barnburner (Eclectic) 1-2pm The greasier side of rock 'n' roll, rhythm 'n' blues, and country... Crack a beer, order some BBQ, and get your boogie on.
Native Solidarity News (Talk) 5-6pm A national radio service and part of an international network of information and action in support of indigenous peoples' survival and dignity. Are You Aware (Eclectic) 6-7:30pm Celebrating the message behind the music: Profiling music and musicians that take the route of positive action over apathy. Exquisite Corpse (Experimental) 7:30-9pm Experimental, radio-art, sound collage, field recordings, etc. Recommended for the insane. artcorpse@yahoo.com Live From Thunderbird Radio Hell (Live Music) 9-11pm Featuring live band(s) every week performing in the CiTR Lounge. Most are from Vancouver, but sometimes bands from across the country and around the world. Hypnotic Groove (Techno) 11pm-12am
Radio Zero (Dance) 2-3:30pm An international mix of super-fresh weekend party jams from New Wave to foreign electro, baile, Bollywood and whatever else. www.radiozero.com Nardwuar (Nardwuar) 3:30-5pm Join Nardwuar the Human Serviette for Clam Chowder flavoured entertainment. Doot doola doot doo … doot doo! nardwuar@nardwuar.com News 101 (Talk) 5-6pm See Monday for description.
Jones, plays a heavyweight selection of classics from the past, present and future including jazz, soul, hiphop, Afro-Latin, funk and eclectic Brazilian rhythms. Plus interviews with local and international artists. Truly international flavour. Rainbow Groove (Dance) 9-10:30pm DJ BFAD presents a kaleidoscope of funky grooves for your mind, body and soul. Tune in to hear everything from Underground Disco, Roller Boogie, Space Funk, Rare Groove, Jazzy House, Dub Reggae, and anything from Chaka Khan to the Clash. Shake A Tail Feather (Soul/R&B) 10:30-12am The finest in classic soul and rhythm & blues from the late '50s to the early '70s, including lesser known artists, regional hits and lost soul gems. The Vampire's Ball (Industrial) 12-4am Dark, sinister music to soothe and/or move the Dragon's soul. Industrial, goth and a touch of metal too. Blog: thevampiresball. blogspot.com. thevampiresball@gmail.com
SATURDAY The Saturday Edge (Roots) 8am-12pm A personal guide to world and roots music—with African, Latin and European music in the first half, followed by Celtic, blues, songwriters, Cajun and whatever else fits! steveedge3@mac.com Generation Anihilation (Punk) 12-1pm A fine mix of streetpunk and old-school hardcore backed by band interviews, guest speakers and social commentary. crashnburnradio@yahoo.ca
Hot Mess (Eclectic) 6-7:30pm With banging beats of rock, funk, electro and more music from the beautiful DJ Blonde Tron and entertaining banter from seasoned hosts Handsome, Jay and Eddy.
Power chord (Metal) 1-3pm Vancouver's longest running metal show. If you're into music that's on the heavier/darker side of the spectrum, then you'll like it. Sonic assault provided by Geoff the Metal Pimp.
African Rhythms (Eclectic) 7:30-9pm Your Host, David Love
Code Blue (Roots) 3-5pm
From backwoods delta low-down slide to urban harp honks, blues and blues roots with your hosts Jim, Andy and Paul. codeblue@ buddy-system.org The Leo Ramirez Show (World) 5-6pm The best of mix of Latin American music. leoramirez@canada.com Nasha Volna (World) 6-7pm News, arts, entertainment and music for the Russian community, local and abroad. nashavolna.ca Notes from the Underground (Electronic/Hip-hop/More) 7-9pm Start your Saturday night off right with our weekly showcase of the local underground DJ and electronic music scene. notesundergroundradio. blogspot.com notesundergroundradio@ gmail.com Synaptic Sandwich (Dance/Electronic/Eclectic) 9-11pm If you like everything from electro/techno/trance/8-bit music/retro '80s this is the show for you! www.synapticsandwich.net Beats from the Basement (Hip-hop) 11pm-1am Mr. Joi, being a cinephile as well as a DJ, will surprise you with the likes of : French New Wave, Golden Age, Noir, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Coming of age Drama, Epic/Myth, Fantasy, Gangster, Horror, Romantic Comedy, Science Fiction, Social Drama, Thriller, the Art Film, the Black Comedy, the Musical and the Porno. Dreamscene Radio (Dance) 1am-3am Immerse yourself in cutting edge electronic music from every point on the spectrum. Christoker spins the latest tracks taking over dance floors around the world and introduces you to the producers behind them. Turn the stereo up and have a dance party with your cat (cats love Electro!)
art project // ryan walter wagner Ryan Walter Wagner is a multidisciplinary photographer, musician and kitchen designer from Vancouver, B.C. Perhaps best known in the music scene as the documentarian of the karaoke parties of Mount Pleasant South and for his freelance work with bands, Wagner has also amassed a wide collection of portrait, object and landscape photography. While his portraits tend to explore the more joyous and monumental instances of everyday life, his landscapes evoke a sense of alienation and disruption between subject and object, giving the viewer a glimpse into what feels like a perturbing, unassailable void. More of Ryan's work can be found at ryanwalterwagner.blogspot.com.
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art project // ryan walter wagner
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// under review Ryan Bourne
Supermodern World of Beauty
(Killbeat Records) Calgary musician Ryan Bourne recently dropped his debut album with some of the city's finest musicians helping to make it happen. Supermodern World of Beauty is a confident first recording that ought to take little time in becoming a favourite for those who enjoy the lighter end of psychedelic folk rock. But there's more than folk rock going on here. A little bit of bottom-end moody stuff goes a long way in breaking the consistency of the trippy psychedelic stuff. In fact, this is a pretty diverse album all around. The opener, "Calling From Beyond" is a grabber for sure. Good full sound, crisp production and some tasty piano and horns make for a strong lead in. What follows in the next nine tracks is a winding road through trippy realms of freak folkrock, atmospheric meditations of sound. The quality that ties this music together is vintage. It's got that '60s folk rock revival thing going on both in the recording and music offered. There are shades of Chad Van Gaalen in many of these songs, which is sensible being that Van Gaalen's rhythm section is also Bourne's, but this isn't a case of borrowing someone else's sound. These are simply musical shadows cast respectively. Some debuts come off as immature or lacking in a certain punch that make you take notice, but this one comes complete with punch and leftovers. Supermodern may not shake your world to the core right away, but stay with it. There is a nice warm urgency
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to this music that is definitely worth the time spent. —Nathaniel Bryce
Ron Contour & Factor Saffron
(Fake Four Inc.) The mysterious and elusive MC, Ron Contour, has returned from his hiatus as a beekeeper somewhere on the Prairies to drop another collection of nonsensical rhymes on the masses. The Prairies seem to have had a positive effect on our friend with the curious English accent. Not only did he find the time to grow a real moustache, he found endless inspiration in the infinite skyline and befriended genius Saskatoon-based producer Factor. With the help of Ron's "cousin" Moka Only, the new friends combined their talents and created the 12 smooth jams that make up Saffron. With song titles like "Cheese Toast Feast" and "Confused Nougat" it is evident even before pressing play that it is best to just allow yourself to get lost in Contour's mesmerizing flow and Factor's supreme beats. To try and follow Contour's rhymes is as futile as watching a fly try to escape through a closed window; to try and decipher them is like trying to interpret the diary of a lunatic. Like all of Contour's previous efforts, Saffron is a well produced, grooving, hip-hop album that doesn't take itself too seriously; it is at once musically intelligent, laughably whimsical and completely enjoyable! —Mark PaulHus
Delhi 2 Dublin Planet Electric
(Independent) Depending on your perspective, Vancouver-based Delhi 2 Dublin is either a brilliant free-thinking experiment in ethnomusicology, or a confused jumble of all things "other." Mashing up languages, instruments and styles from several far-flung corners of the globe into one electrified melting pot, D2D's sophomore release Planet Electric ranges from slowed-down dubby atmospherics to hyperactive bhangra marathons. The diversely talented quintet originally formed as a one-shot performance during Vancouver's Celtic Festival in 2006. Such a bizarre coupling of tabla drums, fiddle, dhol, electric sitar and breakbeats instantly found eager audiences in folk fans and raver kids alike. D2D has since blazed Canada's touring circuit, from the steps of Parliament Hill to the wilderness of Nelson B.C.'s Shambhala Festival. Quite a departure from their lengthy and virtuosic debut, Planet Electric is trimmed and polished. Asian and Celtic influences seem more naturally juxtaposed on this record, showcasing decidedly more "Delhi" than "Dublin." With every song clocking under five minutes, the album clearly strives for both accessibility and danceablility. At times Planet Electric sounds like an Ashley MacIsaac record—if Ashley MacIsaac were somehow raised in Mumbai. Punjabi vocal tracks are slick and energetic on "Tommy,"
which combines a roving drum and bass beat with classical technicality. Violinist Kytami's soaring riffs shine on "Master Crowley," even through cheesy DJ effects and lyrical themes of intergalactic travel. Though sometimes forced into fusion, Planet Electric confirms that originality comes easy for Delhi 2 Dublin. —Sarah Berman
Goldfrapp Head First
(Mute/EMI) Your browser may not support display of this image. Synth, sass and style is the substance of Goldfrapp's fifth studio album titled Head First. Alison Goldfrapp sings alongside the disco-electro smooth dance sounds with a vanilla cream feel. The album is pleasant, soft, glamourous and the kind of pure pop you can only find by climbing into a time machine and setting the dial back 30 years. The first three songs on the record will be stuck inside your head and may cause the grooves in your LP to be worn out. Extremely catchy vocal hooks will have you singing along and beautifully layered '70s and '80s synths will keep you warm and give you an urge to dust off your old Buggles records. There are some excellent pieces in the later part of the album (when you finally get to them). "Hunt" is surprisingly the darkest song on the album. "Shiny and Warm" continues the dark journey with an offering which is basic, rhythmic, repetitive and catchy. The final song titled "Voicething" is precisely
that with an interesting ambient vocal repetition circling around analogue strings and bass sounds. Probably the strongest and most complete album from the UK duo, Head First is a journey forward and backward in time with a number of anthems sure to become a staple in the dance club scene. —Slavko Bucifal
ing the feeling of the impatience and unbearable idleness felt while waiting for a train to see your lover. Collectively, the quartet delves into some seriously expressive territory, and while sometimes a little cacophonic for the tender ear, is quite impressive. —Miné Salkin
Gorillaz
sport coats and slip on loafers that it surpasses cool three times before becoming even cooler. If you dig Gorillaz and fancy a bit of hip hop, funk, dubstep and driving '80s synth jams, Plastic Beach will be the butter to your bread. Like a well put together DJ set or mix tape, it works really well and before you know it you're basking under its brilliant plastic sunlike warmth. —Nathaniel Bryce
(Parlophone Records)
Inhabitants
Someone should have a conversation with whoever made "Midgey Ponchey," the first track of the Jessica Stuart Few's new album, because he or she owes the band an apology. The song doesn't grab you like the first track of an album should and it would be best suited buried somewhere in the middle of the album. As it is, it starts Kid Dream— the JSF's first full-length album—off on the wrong foot, and the album never quite recovers after this stumble. The first problem with the album is Stuart's vocals. On its own, her voice isn't unpleasant, but it does the album a disservice, its crisp breathiness failing to mesh with anyone else in the band. These songs need a voice with slightly higher calo-
Plastic Beach Even if you're not the biggest fan of Gorillaz, Plastic Beach is worth a listen if for no other reason than its sheer brilliance of scope. Damon Albarn, who makes up one half of Gorillaz, cannot be blamed for offering a polymer-based recycled product, pun obviously intended. Plastic Beach is the third album by the world's most successful virtual band, and much like the fleshy cartoon characters that make up this group, it is vibrant, colourful and a bit daft. With celebrity guest spots up the hooper and a decidedly lighter poppier feel to this album, Plastic Beach is a brash step forward, not so much in a new direction, but more in the same direction with new shoes on. Still present is the cartoony off the wall feel along with some great guest spots such as Lou Reed, Mick Jones, Mos Def, Snoop Dogg and other heavies. One of the best tracks here is "Stylo" featuring Mos Def and the legendary Bobby Womack. It's a simple but driving little number that hangs loosely off a synth backing that smells so strongly of Miami Vice issue
A Vacant Lot
(Drip Audio) Britannia Beach's creative music collective Inhabitants have been Junonominated a few times now, and it's hard not to see why. Like a sonic collage weaving ethereal elements from Mogwai and the likes of Do Make Say Think, Inhabitants' third full-length album is full of possibility and dark, mulling soundscapes. One particularly striking and pathos-inducing track is "Journey of the Loach," a sprawling, near ten-minute epic where J.P. Carter's trumpet wails like a wounded bull. Many of the songs, in fact, encompass a strange place falling somewhere between the realms of jazz, space rock and experimental noise. That being said, guitarist Dave Sikula is not afraid to let distortion run wild in "Let Youth Be Served" which screams of urban restlessness and spiritual disturbance. On the other hand, songs like "Whistling Pass" explore the ideas of form and chaos, giv-
The Jessica Stuart Few Kid Dream
(Independent)
rie content that will draw out the rich textures of the other instruments. There are some charming moments on Kid Dream. "(Don't Live Just For The) Weekend" a cheery polemic against getting sucked into the nine-to-five mentality, is pleasant and hooky, if it doesn't bring much to the table in the way of depth. The title track makes use of Stuart's much-touted skill on the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument with 13 strings, to some effect. The opening instrumental bars are
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appropriately dream-like and luxurious. But, once again, the vocals chafe against the instrumental line. There's potential here, but it usually gets derailed when the JSF get lost in their songs and lose sight of what makes music stick to the brain. They could use a refresher on the difference between music that's a pleasure to play and music that's a pleasure to listen to. —Miranda Martini
Liars
Sisterworld
(Mute) The Liars are one of those bands you feel intimidated by because when you listen to their albums, you know you are in the presence of musical geniuses. From the opening haunting melodies of Sisterworld, their fifth studio album, the Liars continue the tradition of carefully crafting every note to evoke intense emotions and keep you on edge for explosions. There are far fewer explosive moments in this album than the anticipation would have you believe, but the intensity and rawness is tortuously beautiful. There are moments when the album sounds like it could be a darker sequel to a Joy Division effort. There are times when the band plays with noises and generates order out of chaos. The guitars and drums are punchy and sound as if they were played in a giant empty slaughterhouse. When the band isn't tinkering with moods, they appear to have no remorse for the abuse placed on their instruments. "Scissor," the opening track, is an outstanding piece which begins melodically then erupts
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with a violent fury that rubs off on you. "Here Comes All the People" is one of those pieces that plays with your head as you wait for the big bang. Instead, the song seamlessly blends into "Drip," a dark and demonic punk electronica that makes you jump at strange noises in the night. "Scarecrows on a Killer Slant" is one of the best angry songs ever. If you like more of the classic punk sound, "The Overachievers" will satisfy that craving nicely. It appears that the Liars' Sisterworld is plagued by deep psychological issues and you will be the benefactor of an album created from raw emotions. As a result, Sisterworld should be on the watch list for the album of the year. —Slavko Bucifal
allows Plants & Animals to create a very familiar, yet unique sound. This is the kind of album that begs to be played of a nice shiny slab of 180-gram vinyl. Songs like "Swinging Bells" and "Celebration" beg for you to put on a big pair of headphones, kick back on your bed and drift, but not for long, because "American Idol" is sure to make you rip out the cord and spike the volume knob and sing along. This jangling rocker (complete with saxophone solos from the Arcade Fire's Colin Stenson) is sure to be a staple on summer play lists, just as La La Land is sure to put Plants & Animals on the map once and for all. —Mark PaulHus
Plants & Animals
Hailing from Hamilton, the industrial armpit of Ontario [ed. Gross.], Young Rival is an unlikely gem to surface in the Canadian alternative rock scene. Their debut, self-titled album is riddled with powerful electric twang and
La La Land
(Secret City Records) What do you get if you lock two Maritimers and a French Canadian in a room with a tape recorder? A darn good indie rock album, that's what! La La Land, Plants & Animals follow up to their much loved Parc Avenue, is sure to be one this summers most acclaimed albums. The slow lulling of "Tom Cruz" rolls in at a steady pace, pulling you into the grips of this album and steadying you for a trip through its hazy analog atmosphere. This cohesive collection of songs sounds like modern indie rock produced in the '70's. The combination of traditional recording methods combined with a contemporary song writing style
Young Rival Young Rival
(Sonic Unyon)
unusually astute melodies. With a sprawling, distorted aesthetic that brings Franz Ferdinand and the Hives to mind, the trio's formula is much like a collage of punkinfused, three-part melody-heavy anthems that are catchy, progressive and infectious. The album opens up aggressively with "Got What You Need," a throwback to '60s garage rock with a singer/ guitarist Aron D'Alesio sounding a bit like Interpol's Paul Banks. Another standout track is "Ghost In The Park," a fast, crashing tune that alludes to selling drugs in a shady neighbourhood. With lyrics like "You know I got nothing to sell / But you still come around" the album is nostalgic for the simpler, dirtier times of teenage rebellion. With a gritty aesthetic that only could have been properly cultivated by playing years of gigs in grimy bars, Young Rival's debut is the best album of the summer to drain your beer to. —Miné Salkin
you say party! we say die! by Marlis Funk
real live action // Fake Jazz Festival Glaciers / Archipelago / Rachel Wadham & Shane Krause Scant Intone / The Rita March 25 / Western Front I was sitting in a dimly lit, crowded room upstairs at the Western Front. A guy (Jeffery Allport, I would later learn) walked up to the front of the stage area and set down a floor tom and a snare drum. He sprinkled some salt on each drum and hung a satchel full of violin bows and rubber balls off the floor tom. Across from him was Robert Pederson, laying out an array of broken-looking tape recorders on a low box. Between them was Lief Hall, looking shy in a long floral dress. The trio, Glaciers, proceeded to produce some of the most unearthly noise I'd ever heard. Hall let out a long, hoarse sounding, high-pitched shriek. Allport made his drums moan and howl, bowing the skins with the rubber balls and bowing a pair of cymbals with violin bows. Pederson tinkered with the collection of tape recorders, holding an old magnetic pickup over a tiny speaker and pressing his fingers onto the exposed circuit board of another tape recorder. Industrial tape noise, high-pitched modulated circuit feedback, the moaning drone of the drums, and the banshee vocals combined into a frightening, strange noise exploration. Preceding this performance was one by free jazz ensemble, Archipelago, who did a live score to some of the work of Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer. The Svankmajer short films that were chosen ranged from animated mixed media to claymation and stop-motion. They were perplexing, outlandish and amusing. In one, various clay body parts crawled into a miniature room, joining
together in grotesque ways until a clay man was formed, hunched over and squashed into the tiny space. The band matched the tone and action of the films, creating a perfect atmosphere full of strange noises. Thumb pianos, cello and violin, all sounding chaotic, eerie and noisy, nothing like what you'd expect, made for a very immersive experience. Before this was the bass clarinet and prepared piano duo of Rachel Wadham & Shane Krause. Wadham stood, reaching into the piano and sounding it with her hands or a feather duster, rubbing chopsticks stuck between the strings, causing them to vibrate, while the clarinettist blew hoarse, harsh harmonics. Their jam evolved into a free jazz workout of sharp chords interspersed with percussive noise from prepared piano, coupled with twisting, unpredictable clarinet lines. Scant Intone's unpredictable live electronics were very much with the tone of the evening, though coming from a decidedly different direction. The digital sound design was intriguing and his face was lit eerily by his laptop. The Rita really shook things up with a bracing set that trod a fine line between chaotic sample-collage and bracing feedback sculpture. The music from that night was definitely not for everyone. I admit to cringing when Lief Hall got into the very high registers. But there is something special about a performance when the artist is not only improvising, but also doing so outside of bounds like musical keys or a chord progression. It shows another angle on what we call "music" and was quite inspirational for those with an open mind. —Doug MacKenzie
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the pack ad by shaun stander / scatterheart by tamAra lee
Scatterheart / Los Furios / Bike The Commodore / March 27, 2010 Three local bands playing at the Commodore? On a Saturday night? Really? Excitement! Not something you get to see every day at the Commodore—it was a major thumbs up for the local scene. Bike bounced onto the stage and didn't stop bouncing their entire set. They know how to put on a show and entertain like their lives depend on it. With their mix of horns, frenetic vocals and awesome bass lines, it is impossible not to be drawn into their happy, fervent, pop music. Local Ska legends, Los Furious, took to the stage next and they were hot. As in caliente hot. Los Furios had the rambunctious audience breaking out into random mosh pits and there was even a crowd surfer at one point (very 2004). Their set was fast and relentless. Los Furios gave out one manic music punch after another. Every couple of songs, a pair of burlesque zombie-kitties took to the stage covering the front row in red glitter. They were cute but not really necessary. Los Furios were the band of the night. Unfortunately, it went downhill after that. Scatterheart opened with singer Jessie Enright suspended from the ceiling. Sporting his trademark feather shoulder pads and belting his heart out, it was an impressive sight. The lighting and visuals were so slick they were almost a distraction from the music rather than an enhancement. There was a lot of strutting and posing (as in yoga) from the band and more then enough selfempowerment love talk. After playing "1999," "Somebody to Love" and "Pride," Scatterheart appeared more of a covers band who played the occasional original track. They stood out in stark contrast to Bike and Los Furios, but not for the right reasons. It all looked good and in theory it should have worked, but it came off feeling contrived. There was heart but no soul. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise wonderful evening. —Katherine Boothroyd
Pierced Arrows / Lullabye Arkestra April 3 / Biltmore Cabaret It was a good old fashioned power rock out at the Biltmore last Saturday night when Lullabye Arkestra and Pierced Arrows blasted their way through an evening that left nobody in the dark about how gritty hard music ought to be played. The night was a taste of the old school hardened veterans mixing with the scrappy up and comers. The uniting of the two bands on one bill was awesome. We arrived just in time for Toronto's Lullabye Arkestra. Bathed in fog and a
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couple of simple flood lights, Kat Taylor and Justin Small stood poised, ready to rearrange faces with their hugely powerful blues thrash love songs. Taylor plays bass and screams, bellows, wails and sings while Small slays on the kit. Together they make a lot of glorious noise that stands mightily alongside some of the heaviest's best. Let's just say that a duo who can lay down a convincing death metal cover is impressive. Playing a few off the new album including "We Fuck the Night," which is one of their best, and in a moment of touching upon new levels of bad-ass, Small lit his snare on fire while still playing. They thrashed, they blasted, they ruled! After hearing so much of Pierced Arrows' history as some of the purveyors of early garage punk, it was good to finally see the Portland band doing what they do best. Playing their last show on this leg of the tour, Pierced Arrows were loose and clearly having a great time up there. The house was near capacity and the feeling in the air was electric as the Arrows ripped through a good-sized set list, rarely slowing down or pausing to catch a breath, proving that rock doesn't leave your bones once you pass 50. Indeed, some music is just too tough to die. But why would anyone want it to? Hail, hail rock and roll! —Nathaniel Bryce
Apollo Ghosts / Shawn Mrazek Lives! / Dirty Beaches April 10 / Little Mountain "Show begins at 8 p.m. Over at 11 p.m." Rarely does a show's description read so true. They say Mussolini made the trains run on time. Well, Little Mountain Gallery must be run by Mussolini. Unfortunately, due to this unexpected promptness this humble reviewer missed Dirty Beaches, but was told by another attendee that they were "pretty dope." Shawn Mrazek, following this dope performance, took to the floor rather than the stage, surrounding himself in a tight throng of bobbing heads and appreciation. Listening to Shawn Mrazek play alone with nothing but his guitar and voice, one feels immersed by his yearning, honest lyrics and simple chords. Shawn Mrazek is not one for flair and his simplistic style strips him of the pretension of musician, allowing you to listen directly to his songs without the burden of flamboyant showmanship. [ed. Discorder would like to add our congratulations to Shawn Mrazek on the birth of his son Otis, who was born shortly before this show.] When I returned from a brief smoke break, a thick crowd seemed to have magically appeared, filling the small room to capacity. The scent of anticipation for the night's headliners was thick in the air. The show consisted mainly of songs from their new LP, Mount Benson, interspersed with a generous serving of crowd favourites. Despite a few difficulties and false starts, the band put on a truly memorable display complete with crowd surfing, guest lectures pertaining
to the old western frontier and a costume contest culminating in a shirtless wrestling match between the singer, Adrian Teacher and a few eager moshers. And just as quickly as the night started, the clock struck 11 p.m. Suddenly the music stopped and the crowd was hurriedly rushed into the crisp spring night, giddy with the vibes of an awesome concert. —Craig Turney
You Say Party! We Say Die! April 16 / The Rickshaw Theatre This was a hard review to write. Most of you will know by now that Devon Clifford, drummer of You Say Party! We Say Die! collapsed on stage during their performance at the Rickshaw and subsequently passed away. One of the most talented and hard working bands to ever come out of the Lower Mainland had just come home after an extensive North American tour. And those of us at the Rickshaw were glad to have them back. Against the back drop of an old Twin Peaks episode YSP!WSD! played songs off their latest album XXXX. Vocalist Becky Ninkovic was charismatic as always. She didn't miss a note and at various times expressed her delight at being home. Guitarist Derek Adam struck power chord after power chord. Bassist Stephen O'Shea cut a striking figure on stage, lost in each song. Krista Loewen provided the atmosphere that comes with every YSP!WSD! song. And Clifford belted the hell out of his drum kit. There was a lot of confusion after they finished "She's Spoken For." It quickly became apparent that Clifford was in distress. All we could do was watch in stunned silence as a stream of paramedics came to his aid. The Rickshaw staff eventually moved the audience out onto Hastings where we stood like lost children, wondering what to do next. This isn't supposed to happen to young people. This isn't supposed to happen to viciously talented people on the verge of brilliance. This isn't supposed to happen to a band that had already worked through so many problems and come out on the other side. Too sad for words. —Katherine Boothroyd
International Record Store Day Show The Evaporators / Thee Manipulators / Petroleum By-Product / Brain Bolt April 17 / Neptoon Records Neptoon Records hosted a whopping nine bands this year. The Vicious Cycles got the early crowd bobbing their heads with frequent nods of approval and dancing thanks to their brilliant use of the theremin in the ever so catchy "I Love My Bike." Once Thee Manipulators took the stage, the store got packed. It was the band's record release for Ease Up on the Break Downs and it was clear they wanted to impress. The band worked the crowd, tossing out little maracas to get everyone shakin' and their ecstatic fans started on the "woo o-oos," before the band got the chance to when they broke into "(It's Gonna Be) Alright." That infectious organ, heavy snare and an intensified cover of "Just a Little Misunderstanding" is all that was needed to get people moving towards the shelf packed with the band's freshly pressed LP. Up next were the Evaporators. Nardwuar the Human Serviette couldn't sing if his life depended on it, but boy can he make the crowd hyper. The Evaporators are all about audience interaction. Chocolate was handed out, two frightened teens held Nardwuar up on their shoulders, and a half naked Nardwuar managed to get the entire store to crouch down and jump in the air. The store turned into a gong show and people were either thinking "What the fuck?" or grinning with excitement. After the Evaporators, the crowd faded and unfortunately missed a nice set by trio Petroleum By-Product. Though their levels had to be adjusted and they seemed bored, their simplistic, '80s New Wave tracks, proved that less is more. A lesson that the band that followed them, Brain Bolt, should note. They were no doubt the loudest, but it was like they were having a private jam session that went on way too long. People were either tired or Brain Bolt seriously cleared the place out. It was obvious that the last two bands were fillers, but the energy from earlier on still made the show worth it. And who can complain when you also received a free lollipop and Neptoon button. —Angela Yen
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think about life / mural by daniel jonhston
sxsw
By Brenda Grunau photos by duncan mchugh
South By Southwest, you may have heard of it. It's possibly the biggest music festival in North America—it certainly has the most bands playing at it. Our own Brenda Grunau went down to check it out and this is her chronicle.
T
hey say (CiTR's music director Luke Meat says) that nothing is like your first time at South By Southwest. If bands are your addiction, then Austin is your overdose. Instead of retail, Austin has bars. Six block of bar after bar. During SXSW, each bar is a venue, sometimes two, and maybe even three, if they decide to extend the party with a tent in the back alley. Many venues were outdoors, in alleys, parks or at the back of ranch houses hosting pong tables. The sound bleed in the street was incredible (from a showgoer perspective as well as from a city bylaw perspective), with a different band teasing your ears every ten paces. Two main streets were closed during the festival and filled up with music lovers, who seemed refreshingly normal after witnessing Granville's red-clad drunken hordes during the Olympics. There were so many bands in Austin that bands that starting with the letter 'B' took up three pages in my pocket program guide. Highlights of my SXSW included seeing the Muffs, Ruby Sons, Yellow Fever, recently discovered '70s punk band Death, Winnipeg's Boats! and Local Natives. Nashville's Turbo Fruits stunned the crowd as lead singer Jonas Stein climbed the speakers, grabbed hold of the awning poles and hung upside down from the middle of the tent, strumming his guitar. Goofy Das
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Racist rappers reluctantly treated us to the annoyingly catchy "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell." For our pre-SXSW event, we visited the 21st Street Coop, an undergraduate cooperative (and occasional show zone) that had the air of a combination commune and frat house. Wooden walkways connected the buildings, making space for beer-swilling partiers who spilled out of the small, hot, sweaty room. If you could avoid errant pissers and beer cans, the grounds were lovely, abuzz with the flow of students and random music industry professionals. Wounded Lion and Thee Oh Sees were the main attractions, and transformed the room into a mess of moshing, smelly boys. Our SXSW ended at a Vice party in an unfinished office building. We jumped levels in the adjoining parking garage and snuck in the back door, catching sight of pot-bellied and shirtless Les Savy Fav, as lead singer Tim Harrington ran into the throng and reappeared on a table top floating across the crowd. CiTR's Duncan McHugh was one of the pallbearer-esque muscle men underneath.
dutchess says / thee oh sees
The Conference SXSW also featured panels and presentations, interviews, a trade show and a poster exhibit. Our very own Nardwuar the Human Serviette presented his "Video Vault Part Deux," entertaining the adoring crowd with anecdotes and amusing segues. Nardwuar chronicled his conversations throughout the years with Courtney Love, and his intention to catch a few words with her at SXSW. Unfortunately, she managed to give him the slip despite his excellent star hunting skills. The other panels delved into industry challenges and legal issues. In "Why Hasn't the Record Industry Sued Girl Talk?" two lawyers got into a snit over the definition of the public domain, and in "Evaluating the New Business Models: Benefit or B.S.?" five lawyers put a hundred people to sleep by discussing the details of contracts.
The Day Parties In addition to hourly evening showcases between the hours of 8 p.m. and 2 a.m., companies, countries, labels and media threw day parties, all free with stellar line-ups, free food, swag and occasionally liquor. The M for Montreal party was stacked with great Canadian bands including Besnard Lakes, Holy Fuck, Think About Life, Duchess Says, Rory Erikson and Plants & Animals. Although we were disappointed that our beer tickets were really a raffle for a pair of jeans, we stuck around for the afternoon to score free vegan BBQ and pineapple/basil ice cream bars. While the food was disappearing fast in buffet form, the music was lined up like one of those classy ten-course tasting menus.
Duchess Says, a percussive art-rock-pop outfit from Montreal, charmed and jarred us with their edgy experimental sound. Lead vocalist Annie-Claude Deschênes paced the stage, punctuated the music with her body, and used her stiff hands to chop sound into bits and pieces. Vancouver's own Edo Van Breeman of Brasstronaut was bobbing around in the crowd, eyes on the floor, when Annie-Claude burst into the crowd, put her shoulders on Edo and wrestled him down to the ground. Check out Discorder's website for the video. Mint Records and Six Shooter Records threw a fun bash with the Pack A.D. and Carolyn Mark, and Manitoba Music hosted an amazing BBQ in a beautiful turn-of-the-century mansion.
Austin Sights On recommendation by Val Cormier of CiTR's Folk Oasis, we hopped in the car for a day of Texas county adventures. After a historical distraction and cattle safari at L. B. Johnson National Park, we arrived at Luckenbach—population: 3, a trading post and dance hall on Farm to Market Road 1376. Thirty odd people were scattered around the town and the picnic tables, drinking Shiners (the Texas brew), and singing along to covers of country songs. We were treated to a rendition of the Waylon Jennings song that made Luckenbach famous— "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)." Luckenbach hosts concerts regularly, and was the site of Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic in the '90s. We enjoyed the atmosphere in relative safety, under the boughs of a hulking, ancient tree, until one of the chickens hiding in the branches laid an egg that dropped to the ground with a crackle and splat.
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by Sancho McCann illustration by lindsey hampton
I
n part one of this series, we looked at some of the technical aspects of getting started as a DJ: equipment, resources, practice and developing your style. Part two covers the rest of it: starting to play publically, getting known, show promotion and some tips for the scene in Vancouver. Advice comes from Brad Winter, CiTR's music director, Michael Red of Lighta! Sound and Jason Sulyma a.k.a. my!gay!husband! To move out of your own little space to performing in front of a live crowd can be the hardest step to make. You can start by simply playing at parties that you or your friends' host. Who's going to turn down an offer to have a DJ at their party? "There are things you'll never understand until you play somewhere live," Winter said. "[Like] how to keep people on their toes, giving them something that they don't expect, getting that balance between what you like and what they like." Vancouver has a really cool opportunity called Open Dex at the ANZA club every Saturday night from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. It's half hour sets, open to anyone who wants to play. You'll find a relaxed lounge environment where people aren't expecting to dance (although it's definitely not prohibited), so less pressure than out at a club. Winter recommends looking downtown for a few hip retail stores that have turntables. They can be welcoming to beginner DJs and they also don't have the pressure of having to entertain a crowd that wants to dance. Play at one of these a few times on weekends or evenings and you just might get an invite back to play at a special event. If you're looking for a fun challenge, CiTR holds an annual DJ contest with entrants ranging from beginners just stepping out of their bedrooms to those with several years of experience behind them. This can all be fun, so why would you want to take it further? One reason is just to grow a scene that you think is missing. "If you don't see events going on that fit what you want to play, then put them on yourself," said Red. "It's easier than you might think." We'll get to that, but if you're not ready to jump in and start promoting your own events right away, you might want to try to catch the attention of a promoter or a DJ crew that you think fits with your style. This is where personal promotion through an online presence is essential. Red had some advice about this. Demos, mixes and playlists are key. These should reflect what you really want to play. They should give promoters and other DJs an idea of how you'd fit in with what they're trying to do. Be visible online. Use MySpace. Start a blog. "The easier you make [it] on the promoter to sell an event with you playing, the easier it's going to be for you," said Red. The choice between solo promotion and operating as a group has several consequences. Red and Sulyma both acknowledged working as an individual brings greater freedom: "You get to follow your vision, book the bands you want, the flyers, the art, you get to decide it," Sulyma said.
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Depending on how you view the conflicts that arise in a group, they're not necessarily a negative. "We're all individuals, and we're all artists … There can be clashes … but that can be a really great learning process provided everyone is willing to meet at that level," said Red. There's also the financial aspect. To run an event, you'll need to pay your staff, the venue and then having to split the small profit with a few others can make your rent hard to pay. Some event planning tips from Red and Sulyma should be useful for any up-and-coming promoter. Sulyma gave a step-by-step: pick a name for your silly night, even though nobody cares about the name; get a good graphic designer and build your graphic to fit the kind of event you want, create a flyer and get it printed, then hustle hard. He suggests hitting the stores, the street and having a nighttime presence. "Don't just hang on the Internet the whole time and think that's promoting. When the Cobalt closed, there were 6,000 people on the Facebook group," said Sulyma. [ed. Point being that it still closed.] Red added, "It's important not to push things on people. Give them the information and leave it in their hands to decide. Just put on a quality event, then word of mouth will spread." A venue for your event might seem hard to come by, but they're out there. "Every bar is so broke here, and everybody only has weekend traffic, they would kill to have more shows, and if you say that you can't get a show from Sunday through Thursday, then you're not trying hard enough," said Sulyma. It does depend on what you're trying to do, though. Underground bass music has a particularly difficult time. Red was excited about the re-opening of 917 Main a.k.a. the Cobalt: "Everything appeared to work there, except … for the bass volume." He's wonders though, about mainstream venues taking more chances on underground. "It'd be great to live in a world where Top 40 mainstream dance music didn't dominate Vancouver's downtown scene." Perhaps it just comes down to money. That's what Sulyma mentioned it coming down to. "If you fill the room, the venue can sell their liquor and then they'll let you do another show," he said. One demographic that's under-targeted by events in Vancouver is the under 19 crowd. Sulyma's only complaints about venues in the city is that there are not enough venues for the huge under 19 population and that all-ages shows get the police scared and get parents scared. "Kids are sneaking into clubs anyway. They need to get used to doing unique social things in the evenings, not just house parties or raves where they'll get beat up or O.D.," said Sulyma. There's a challenge for you promoters out there: build up the all-ages scene. The Rickshaw, with their theatre licence, is one of the few great locations for all-ages shows. Red and Sulyma had similar final bits of advice. "Make sure that you're playing music that you're passionate about. Make sure you're going where you want to go," said Red. "Do it if you want to do it," said Sulyma, "and don't worry about haters."
// CiTR 101.9 FM Charts
STRICTLY THE DOPEST HITZ OF April #
Artist
Album
Label
#
Artist
Album
Label
1
Apollo Ghosts*
Mount Benson
Independent
26
The Slackers
The Great Rocksteady Swindle
Hellcat
2
The Molestics*
A Farewell to Hokum
Independent
27
Growing
Pumps!
Vice
3
Dum Dum Girls
I Will Be
Sub Pop
28
Fan Death
A Coin For The Well
Last Gang
4
Eddy Current Suppression Ring
Rush to Relax
Goner
29
Excepter
Presidence
Paw Tracks
5
Love Is All
Two Thousand & Ten Injuries
Polyvinyl
30
Ghostkeeper*
s/t
Flemish Eye
6
Mark Sultan*
$
Last Gang
31
Various*
MusicWorks 106
MusicWorks Magazine
7
Charlotte Gainsbourg
IRM
Because
32
Liars
Sisterworld
Mute
8
The Souljazz Orchestra*
Rising Sun
Strut
33
Wooden Shjips
Vol. 2
Sick Thirst
9
Harlem
Hippies
Matador
34
Jaga Jazzist
One-Armed Bandit
Ninja Tune
10
Indian Wars*
If You Want Me b/w Bachelor Carol Anne 7"
35
Fanshaw*
Dark Eyes
Mint
11
Plants & Animals*
La La Land
Secret City
36
Roky Erickson w/ True Love Cast Out All Evil Okkervil River
12
Happy Birthday
s/t
Sub Pop
37
Boats*
Cannonballs, Cannonballs
Majestic Triumph
13
Loscil*
Endless Falls
Kranky
38
Moon Duo
Escape
Woodsist
14
Spoon River*
Kingdom of the Burned
Northern Electric
39
Joanna Newsom
Have One On Me
Drag City
15
Inhabitants*
A Vacant Lot
Drip Audio
40
SubtractiveLAD*
Life at the End of the World
n5MD
16
Sonny & the Sunsets
Tomorrow is Alright
Soft Abuse
41
Young Rival*
s/t
Sonic Unyon
17
Quasi
American Gong
Kill Rock Stars
42
Yeasayer
Odd Blood
Secretly Canadian
18
Jonsi
Go
XL Recordings
43
Ruby Suns
Fight Softly
Sub Pop
19
She & Him
Vol. Two
Merge
44
Malachai
Ugly Side of Love
Domino
20
Bonobo
Black Sands
Ninja Tune
45
The Hextalls*
Get Smashed
Independent
21
Awesome Color
Massa Hypnos
Ecstatic Peace!
46
Half Chinese*
We Were Pretending To Be
Needs More Ram
22
Four Tet
There Is Love In You
Domino
47
Pantha Du Prince
Black Noise
Rough Trade
23
Yellow Swans
Going Places
Type
48
Gigi*
Maintenant
Tomlab
24
McRackins*
It Ain't Over Easy
Wolverine
49
Best Coast
When I'm With You Black Iris b/w This Is Real 7"
25
Goldfrapp
Head First
EMI
50
Heiki*
Paper + Sound
Anti-
Paper+Sound
CiTR's charts reflect what's been played on the air by CiTR's lovely DJs last month. Records with asterisks (*) are Canadian. Most of these excellent albums can be found at fine independent music stores across Vancouver. If you can't find them, give CiTR's music coordinator a shout at (604) 822-8733. His name is Luke Meat. If you ask nicely, he'll tell you how to find them. Check out other great campus/community radio charts at www.earshot-online.com.
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